Thanks for your comment. I wrote my reply here.

Warmly,

Jen

I have held off having another child, due to a 52 hour labour and a c-section.
Fear took over me, as doctors lied and told me different stories.
My ‘natural contractions stopped because of fear and lies.
One doctor looked at his watch and told me he wanted to go home.
I live in a small town, so the nearest hospital is 60 kms away, the doctor here told me I had to go to the hospital, as my waters had broken and I had no contractions within 24 hours,so I was ‘high risk’ for infection.
No-one wanted to help me here, plus it was late, I already called the doctor from her warm bed.She sent me off to hospital as a high risk, when I arrived at the ‘big’ hospital, a nurse walked in and said, “take your clothes off, we’ll induce oyu and get ready for a c-section”….No hello or how are you can I get you anything.
There were rips in the curtains, it was lit with fluorescent lights and I had to share a bathroom with the lady next door who I had to listen to give birth.
I was so afraid at this stage, that I had no choice…If I was a weak woman, I would have said “okay” and not known any thing ‘un natural about this.
When I said “NO” to the nurse, that I was having a vaginal birth, she walked out and 5 minutes later in came a doctor, who said and I quote “What are you doing here then if you think you are to have a vaginal birth considering your waters broke over 24 hours ago, and you have had no movement as yet”….then he said, “Oh let me guess the Doctor in your town was^$#$&^**>> and she couldn’t be bothered with you so she sent you here, am I right that it was doctor #@#%&$^*&&>>??”
I fell apart after I asked him to “**ck off and get me a new doctor”!!!!

There was no hope for me, I was scared by this stage, I was quite happy at home with my partner and doula, my best friend….We lay around eating and preparing and we went for a walk.
If I had of known that I could have been given antibiotics; against the possibility of having an infection, due to my waters breaking in my small town from the doctor on call that night, perhaps I would have stayed calm and in my space rather than panicked and fearful that I had the infection and I must go straight to hospital to get rid of it,otherwise my baby could die…

I am so disgusted with Doctors, and even more disgusted with the lack of choices women have with something that should be and can be so beautiful, therefore it should be out decisions on ho and where we choose to birth.

After I had my c-section, I came home with ‘golden staff’ which I had got from the hospital, my weeping cut was getting worse, I had to go on antibiotics for nearly two months, finally the doctor said that I had to go back to hospital and they were to re-open my scar and sew it up again as the puss from the infection and the hole was getting too big, not to mention that my poor little baby girl was taking in so much of my pain and fear and drugs, I was bed ridden.
I refused and stopped the antibiotics and went onto homeopathies, a concoction I made up myself, one for wounds one for fear and one getting better. Within 3 days my wound was healing and getting smaller, with in 1 week it had closed, all the puss was gone…

Anyway, my partner and I are trying now for another baby, as my little girl now 4 tells me “she is ready for a baby sister”, I just hope that through this pregnancy I will cure myself from the trauma that I had to endure unnecessarily.
This has shattered my world, my being for so long, I want to be free and positive and know that it wasn’t my fault or my bodies fault, that I am a strong woman who can give birth vaginally with out doctors interfering and telling me differently.
I want the old me back….GO VBAC………I can do this!!!!!!
Thanks for letting me use this site for letting go a little more…
Emma Mckay from Denmark Western Australia.

All I see in this article is “I say home birth is awesome. These women agree with me because they had bad experiences in the hospital. Home birth is the best.” You say this is for the number crunchers but I find that rather laughable. I see only a few numbers that actually matter and, like I said before, you don’t say where these numbers came from. For all I know they are made up. If I was a true number cruncher interested in only facts and unbiased information then I most definitely would find this article completely useless. Numbers are supposed to be unbiased information, though they can be twisted, and this article is anything but. I would be far more impressed by an article that can show numbers AND an unbiased point of view. If home birth is as safe as you say then you needn’t go on a raging rant in your article about how it’s so amazing because the numbers and statistics would say it for you.

Nice try though, E for effort.

Birth in the hospital is safer. The only people who appear to be unaware of this are homebirth advocates. All the existing scientific evidence and the existing state and national data show that homebirth has an increased rate of neonatal death compared to hospital birth for comparable risk women. Sure, there are papers that claim to show that homebirth is as safe as hospital birth, but they do that by comparing low risk homebirth to high risk hospital birth, or low risk homebirth to hospital birth in decades past. The Johnson and Daviss BMJ 2005 study ACTUALLY shows that homebirth with a CPM in 2000 had a neonatal death rate almost triple that of hospital birth in 2000.

According to the Linked Birth Infant Death 2003-2004 dataset recently released by the CDC, the most dangerous form of PLANNED homebirth in the US is homebirth with a DEM.

Dr. Amy, Thank you for your comment. My reply is a little long, so I’ve included it here. Best, Jen

http://www.indiebirth.com/2008/09/02/a-vbac-story/

Change is coming…

Keep spreading your message.

-Maryn