Homebirth Dads

Natural Papa Derek Markham has a series on his blog, 10 Questions for Homebirth Dads. One of the dads interviewed, Jorge Cuevas, is the producer of the video Homebirth Dads. Haven't seen it, but it looks neat.

Triple Surprise

Dusty and Lynette Johnson of Tuttle, North Dakota, were planning a homebirth, but they got a little more than they were expecting:

The Johnsons thought they would be bringing a third child into the family, and so did everyone else. When she had Christopher, he weighed more than nine pounds at birth; Abigail was 10 pounds when she was born. Lynette Johnson expected to have another large baby, and her midwife said her measurements were on target for that, she said.

When she gave birth, however, her midwife quickly prepared for a multiple birth after Marissa was born and she realized Lynette was not done giving birth.

The girl babies were fine, but the boy had some trouble breathing and spent a couple weeks in the hospital. Friends and neighbors threw a fundraiser to help defray medical and living expenses.

Safety of Homebirth

I'm going back through some old things...

Selkie and Expectant Waiting had some great pieces on the safety of homebirth.

Breech Birth

Link to photos and a description of "A planned homebirth of a footling breech baby with a midwife", for those who are interested in such things.

Woman Gives Birth In Bathroom

Seems like every week or two there is a news item about an unplanned homebirth. But this one about a Kansas couple caught my attention because of the last part of the article:

"The baby didn't cry when she came out. She just kind of made some cooing noises and was just looking up at all the paramedics and her mother and me. It was the best day of my life," Shifflet said.
...
"I'm so proud of her. I feel like we did it together. I'm going to tell her she's my little mission accomplished," Schulte said.

Schulte said that deep down, she wanted to have a home birth.

Funny how birth works that way, isn't it?

Just Let Your Monkey Do It

Great, great article from The Missoula Independent about homebirth and natural childbirth and midwifery.

Homebirth Association of North Dallas

Our local homebirth group got a write up in the Denton Record-Chronicle (front page, no less).

Home Birth Study

Norwegian Princess Martha Louise had her second baby at home, and talks about it here.

But the big news is a study just published in the British Medical Journal: "Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America" The study of over 5000 births concludes that:

Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.

What We Think of Home-Birthing

Here's a nice post about homebirth from The House of Degenhart (actually a wife's guest post on her husband's blog). It's quite comprehensive, going into both medical issues and what might be termed the "soft" reasons for homebirthing. They have five children, the first a hospital birth and the next four at home, so they do have a bit of experience.