Hospital birth was worst, says mother

A MOTHER has made a heartfelt plea for an end to hospital-focused childbirth, after describing her birth of a child in hospital as by far the most gruelling.

Liz Schipper has had four children but told the commission of inquiry into hospitals yesterday that by far "the most painful experience I have been through" was in Goulburn Base Hospital.

The housewife from Bungonia in the Southern Highlands told the commission that after giving birth to two children at her home in the Netherlands, she had returned to Australia and went to Goulburn Hospital to have her third child.

Her daughter was born uneventfully but not before she was subjected to interventions by the obstetrician, including the application of a fetal heart monitor and fetal scalp monitor, an attempt to insert a drip for pain relief which was abandoned at her request, and a request that she lie on a bed with her legs in stirrups when she had been used to walking and standing during labour.

"It seems to me if you want things to go wrong, go to a hospital," Ms Schipper said.

She was one of three women who criticised their experience giving birth at Goulburn Hospital and appealed for Medicare to subsidise midwives for births at home.

She has since had her fourth baby at home, with her husband Ralph catching the baby in the absence of the midwife.

It’s fascinating when women who have something to compare point out the failures of the hospital-birthing system. 

Photos of the recent Independant Midwives Association of South Australia meeting when I gate crashed and presented stuff about kangaroo care to with some fellow students! There were some semi-famous people there and other students from the university here.

Oh dear here we go to name them all - front row (L-R): lovely student who works at close to city but in the country hospital, JF, me!!!, Megan, Ms Reflexologist 

Back row: Lisa Barrett, Rose, Ros, another IM, Rosie, Tania, student, student, Kate, Kylie

More photos:

Birth Technology - Less is more
Sometime during the past century of health care, "high-tech" became synonymous with "better and safer." As we learn in the movie "The Business of Being Born," when it comes to giving birth, this is not necessarily the case.

The "Business of Being Born" is the brainchild of talk-show host Ricki Lake, for whom I have newfound respect. After her first baby was born in the hospital with multiple unwanted interventions, she began looking around for a better option. She found homebirth and went on to have such a powerful, inspiring second birth in her own bathtub, that she made a movie about her experiences.

If you’ve not seen this documentary already, please go and see it. Or buy it and watch it. Show EVERYONE you can.

A long long time ago, I wrote a post about how much a homebirth cost. It is my most popular post by far and I am feeling the need to update it.

*EDITED* to add that these costs are not for private births per se - the ones Anna gave me are for New Zealand and not for Australia.

The costs that I quoted were from enquiries in Sydney, so let me upate for Adelaide. Rumour has it (as in, I’ve never felt the need to ask midwives directly but people who have had homebirths have hinted around these numbers) that a privately attended birth here will cost $2,000 - $3,000 rougly: a little less here, a little more there, up to $4,000 one person reported to me (but that included a few extras). The hire of a birth pool is usually extra to this. 

A few of the comments have questioned the $50k figure I put on business costs. I wasn’t clear there but I will say that those costs would be that high to cover the cost of self-insurance if that’s the way that I wanted to go.

Anna gave me me some New Zealand figures to work with:

4 births a month @ $2,000 each roughly, from the NZ government = $8,000
$900 in business costs a month = $7,100 / year
If I assume one month off a year, that’d be $78,100 a year

Homebirths cost $400 more to the midwife because of the calling in of a second midwife so potentially up to $17,600 less, so $60,500 (but perhaps this is balanced out by being the "second midwife" occassionally?)

So there you go, an update and a reflection of how it might be in Australia if we ever had a homebirth policy! 

Please go and read about this and see what you think.

Add to this - if you want a physiological third stage in a hospital setting, the words "lotus birth" will guarantee that no one severs the cord. Even if you have no intention of keeping the placenta until the cord falls off on its own, it will keep people from cutting cord, which is one of the only ways to insist on letting the baby get its full compliment of blood.