We saw a consultant at the Rosie after waiting for more than an hour and her first question was “You are not going to have a home birth this time, isn’t it?” Same question made by our midwife at the first visit…
I know that it is not always easy to find people that are supportive of home birth, but I do not necessarily want a home birth if it is proven that for medical reasons it would be better to be in hospital (I am still unsure that the reason given are good… but anyway). What I want to achieve as much as possible is a natural birth, and I felt that the consultant was not supportive to that idea either. Why on earth giving birth should be so medicalized, so feared and stressful? I didn’t feel that way the first time around… why these doctors want us to feel vulnerable and worried (she said “you know I saw women losing lots of blood here, it is very serious and they would have died if they were at home”)? Why is it getting more difficult this time to find home/natural birth supporters?
The first time, our midwife and the NCT teacher convince us that a home birth would be the best thing to do. And I really think that it was, nobody could have predicted a retained placenta. And I am grateful that we could have been transferted to hospital to remove it. I now feel that they (the gynaecologist that removed my placenta and the consultant we saw) want us to feel guilty about the decision we took of having a home birth. Why should it be this way?
Consultant appointment at Rosie!!!