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According to a recent study reported by Reuters, child birth in a hospital setting is far safer: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-homebirths-newborn-mo

According to a recent study reported by Reuters, child birth in a hospital setting is far safer: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-homebirths-newborn-mortality/hospital-births-far-safer-for-u-s-newborns-than-home-births-idUSKBN20N0R0 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-homebirths-newborn... Skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth is pretty common in hospital settings now. You shouldn't care about it all being a "lovely" or "natural" experience. You should care that everyone gets out safely. Birth can be a brutal and deadly affair.

gffrd 5y ago
What's wrong with it being a lovely experience? Couldn't we assume that OP's hierarchy includes the "everyone gets out safely" box having been ticked? This is like saying cars should not be enjoyable because they exist purely to move us around.
- yupper32 5y ago
  > What's wrong with it being a lovely experience? It shouldn't be a priority. At all. If it happens to also be a lovely experience, that's of course fine. But it's not something to plan around when it significantly reduces the chance of everyone being safe. > Couldn't we assume that OP's hierarchy includes the "everyone gets out safely" box having been ticked? They didn't have a hospital birth, so no. It's not a box that was sufficiently ticked. > This is like saying cars should not be enjoyable because they exist purely to move us around. This is like buying a two seater sports car and putting your child's car seat up front. It might be more enjoyable for you, and it'll probably be fine most of the time, but it's significantly more dangerous for your child. My post might sound harsh, but continuing to spout the "benefits" of a home birth is just plain dangerous when the facts don't support safety. I feel the harshness is appropriate.
baby 5y ago
Country A infant mortality rate in 2021: 2.86 deaths per 1000 births. Country B infant mortality rate in 2019: 5.75 deaths per 1000 births. Guess which country is which.
- vlovich123 5y ago
  Intra country results can be challenging as who chooses a home birth & who goes to the hospital is already a likely biased population. Maybe the pregnancy is already known to be an at-risk factor, thus biasing things. Or choosing one vs the other may be a confounding socioeconomic factor. If it's this hard for intra country comparisons, why would one expect inter country comparisons, where one country has socialized medicine & the other doesn't, to meaningfully reflect the specific policies around child birth vs the larger differences between societies? I don't know the answer, but I don't think simply comparing mortality rates can be used to conclude "natural home birth is safer".

gffrd 5y ago

What's wrong with it being a lovely experience? Couldn't we assume that OP's hierarchy includes the "everyone gets out safely" box having been ticked? This is like saying cars should not be enjoyable because they exist purely to move us around.

yupper32 5y ago
> What's wrong with it being a lovely experience? It shouldn't be a priority. At all. If it happens to also be a lovely experience, that's of course fine. But it's not something to plan around when it significantly reduces the chance of everyone being safe. > Couldn't we assume that OP's hierarchy includes the "everyone gets out safely" box having been ticked? They didn't have a hospital birth, so no. It's not a box that was sufficiently ticked. > This is like saying cars should not be enjoyable because they exist purely to move us around. This is like buying a two seater sports car and putting your child's car seat up front. It might be more enjoyable for you, and it'll probably be fine most of the time, but it's significantly more dangerous for your child. My post might sound harsh, but continuing to spout the "benefits" of a home birth is just plain dangerous when the facts don't support safety. I feel the harshness is appropriate.

baby 5y ago

Country A infant mortality rate in 2021: 2.86 deaths per 1000 births. Country B infant mortality rate in 2019: 5.75 deaths per 1000 births. Guess which country is which.

vlovich123 5y ago
Intra country results can be challenging as who chooses a home birth & who goes to the hospital is already a likely biased population. Maybe the pregnancy is already known to be an at-risk factor, thus biasing things. Or choosing one vs the other may be a confounding socioeconomic factor. If it's this hard for intra country comparisons, why would one expect inter country comparisons, where one country has socialized medicine & the other doesn't, to meaningfully reflect the specific policies around child birth vs the larger differences between societies? I don't know the answer, but I don't think simply comparing mortality rates can be used to conclude "natural home birth is safer".