Comments for erin ellis homebirth midwife

Comment on “If I were at home, I would have died” — The trouble with extrapolating hospital birth events to homebirth by Lauren

Lauren — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:18:19 +0000

My sister and another friend both fall into the category of “I may have died if I had a homebirth.” They had spontaneous placental abruptions, neither of which was caused by any medial interventions. My sister lived 45 minutes from the nearest delivering hospital and happened to be in town when her contractions began. They had 6 minutes to deliver my niece before the lack of oxygen would have damaged her, she was out in 3. I see Divine Intervention as the reason her birth was successful.

My other friend had her water break at 34 weeks at home, blood soon followed… her baby girl was delivered via c-section at her hospital, where she had been planning to have a natural vaginal delivery with a supportive OB/Gyn all along.

In both cases,. to my knowledge, the presence of the needed medical care saved their lives.

I personally will never be able to relax enough at home for a productive labor, well unless this baby comes so fast I can’t get to the hospital. My son was born naturally at 40 weeks 6 days in a hospital under supportive care. Did it have the personal touch of midwifery? No. But when I went in for my 40 week check up, the doctor on the team who I had least expected to be supportive said she would not rupture my membranes because I was progressing well and she was confident my son would come in his own time before 42 weeks.

I have yet to hear how my sister or friend’s lives or at least their babies’ would have been saved given their rare yet significant situations….

I appreciate the article, but it does not offer any insight into the situations I have observed, just those in which interventions may have caused the problems.

Comment on OMG, you did not just cut off a third of my baby’s blood supply?! by Lauren Manners

Lauren Manners — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:18:16 +0000

Shannon, YES! As a doula I have supported a couple who had a lotus c-section. Basically, the OB has to remove the baby and the placenta as quickly as possible, so the only real difference will be that someone has to stand and hold baby while s/he removes the placenta. So more inconvenient for them, but otherwise not an issue. Unless baby needs resus (and even then there is a case for not cutting the cord immediately, but you wouldn’t get that option in a section). You would have to advocate quite strongly for you choice though – perhaps a doula would be able to help you there.
Good luck to you!
<3

Comment on Delayed cord-clamping should happen ON the mother’s abdomen by SVS

SVS — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:05:50 +0000

I know I am not a doctor, definately not an OB or a midwife. I AM a RN though, and this is all very surprising to me to find out that we have to fight this fight. In nursing school (2002) we were taught that you absolutely did not cut the cord until it stopped pulsating. Maybe newer docs will be taught the same, and it’s mainly the old ones we have to push up to date. i don’t have any children yet, but glad that I am learing more about what I myself might have to demand from a doctor one day.

Comment on OMG, you did not just cut off a third of my baby’s blood supply?! by Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:07:58 +0000

This makes me wonder about cord blood transplants. We banked our youngest’s cord blood because he had a brain injury in utero. If we had just waited to clamp and allowed him to absorb the remainder of his cord blood, would a costly transplant have been necessary later on in life? Could he receive the same beneifts naturally, without medical intervention and the DMSO preservative required to transplant them?

Comment on You CAN say no to the fetal monitor, but you’ll need to bring your own doppler — and nurse by Chanda

Chanda — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:30:37 +0000

I am pregnant now and have had to make the difficult decision to give birth to my baby in a hospital because our insurance company flat out refuses to pay the birthing center that I chose and regardless of how ridiculous it sounds…it’s going to cost me more to give birth naturally at a birthing center than it will to have the baby in the hospital with all the interventions. I’m now going to be seeing a nurse midwife at an OB center and am having to have the baby in the hospital and am extremely concerned that my birth plan will not be respected by the staff at the hospital. This is my 3rd child and I’ve never had even the slightest complications either during pregnancy or labor and delivery. Both of my previous labors were subject to continuous monitoring and I had really hoped to NOT have to have this because I find the process extremely annoying, frustrating and uncomfortable. Being confined to bed is not my idea of how things should go during labor. I am hoping that with the switch to a nurse midwife I’ll be able to have some autonomy in how I choose to labor but as I’ve never used one before I’m really anxious that because of her affiliation with the hospital she’ll bow to the hospitals wishes for cEFM. Does anyone have any experience with nurse midwives and how their care decisions are influenced by the environment in which they work?

Comment on OMG, you did not just cut off a third of my baby’s blood supply?! by yaninayoga

yaninayoga — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:01:50 +0000

I love to read such wisdom from women about birth from babys’ perspective – we were all there once! And for most of us, the memory of the trauma is burried deep in our consciousness (as a Professional Rebirther I assist the release of this trauma for clients having realised the value to personal healing of doing so) often affecting our relationships with each other and the world around us.
My thought is – will there be less violence/war/agression in the world when we realise that birth without violence is not only possible but an ideal to be cherished and practiced at every opportunity?
Thankyou for your beautiful wisdom and important work …. janina

Comment on OMG, you did not just cut off a third of my baby’s blood supply?! by Tabitha

Tabitha — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:49:31 +0000

I was just at a birth where the midwife drew the cord bood from the base attached to the placenta, to take for RH- factor.