Another one?

Another girl I know here had her baby this week. She was at the Army hospital. The baby has gone to the NICU, and will not be home anytime this week, and she has not yet been released either. This is an epidemic here. I am trying to think if I know anybody who's done a hospital birth here lately (Army or civilian hospital, public or private) and gotten to go home the next day and take the baby with them when they went, and I'm really not coming up with anything.

Hospital birth is scary. I don't see how anyone can see all this happening, and still think it looks like a good idea for any healthy, low-risk, full-term delivery. From where I sit, I see moms who have had to wait as much as 48 hours to even meet their babies. I see every baby shipped across town to some NICU or another, and not sent home for a week and a half, minimum. I see young, healthy, low-risk women who should not have any of this happening to them, somehow subjected to every one of what should be considered as unlikely possibilities.

The World Health Organization says that homebirth is at least as safe as, or safer than, hospital birth for roughly 85% of women. Yet in the US, almost all women birth in hospitals. How many of these babies would be in the NICU if they had been born at one of the birth centers, or at home? My guess? Maybe one, probably not that many.

Thak and I watched a really good documentary today about birth. The emphasis was really on the dads, but obviously when it's a movie about birth, it's about the whole family. One of the things that it discussed was how inhuman hospital procedures are to the newborn, and how they disenfranchise the entire family, and completely disallow the father to play his natural role in the process.

I was very pleased with Thak when he said that if anyone even thought of treating me and the baby the way the moms and babies were treated in that documentary (which is protocol in US hospitals these days), he would stand up to them, and as soon as I was able, we would take our baby and walk out. He said he would have a hard time not punching someone in the face for treating our baby the way hospital born babies are treated, and that the person who thinks they'll take our baby away from us will have him to deal with and hell to pay.

Again, I find myself feeling lucky for what I have. I know I am lucky to know that I have choices other than hospital birth, and that they are safe choices, and that I am lucky to have found a great midwife to help me along on my homebirth journey. Even more than any of that, though, I'm lucky to have Thak. He knows what a good birth is because he was part of Orren's absolutely perfect birth just two years ago, and not only that, he believes firmly in the process, and would defend, even to the death, the kids' and my human rights. He is my greatest ally, and I have to say, it brings some peace of mind knowing that even if I do become a transfer this time (which hopefully I won't. My odds are about 1% with Alyson's record.) Thak will be with me every step of the way to make sure we don't end up like these others.

I don't know what the mainstream medical establishment is dishing out these days, but it isn't good, and me and Thak both know that we don't want any of it. We're not sure why anyone would risk it under the circumstances. Guess we're just not brave enough to try a hospital birth, huh?