[Pregnancy] Rant: Homebirth Illegal?

[sionnach_sidhe]

That's what the AMA (American Medical Asses -- I mean Association) is pushing for. To legislate against births outside of a "hospital, or a birthing centre within a hospital complex

Comments

[gulfpirate]

Ah. An unkind but rather cunning move from the AMA. After all, childbirth is a very big moneymaker for the American HMOs. This forms a perfect one-two punch with the push down there to outlaw abortions (meeting with varying success from state to state). This means every pregnant mother is a guaranteed customer, to the tune of thousands of U.S. dollars!

Hm, now there is the matter of birth control, which does stand in the way of a REALLY big payout. Oh, I know! What about abstinence-only sex ed? Brilliant! Now we'll add misinformed teenagers to the subscriber list too!

Seriously... no matter how much I whinge about the CBC and other sinking ships, I love this country and much prefer living up here. #12 in the world is still not so bad.

[gulfpirate]

That's odd... my first two paragraphs up there were bookended with "swiftian irony" and "/swiftian irony" in pointy HTML brackets. They didn't show up in the final comment, which makes me wonder if the Livejournal CSS is actually programmed to recognize and implement Swiftian-irony code.

[sionnach_sidhe]

That is rather amusing -- Hey, you there! No creating your own HTML tags!

Seriously though, your swiftian irony is frighteningly close to a potential truth. Between the 'bible belt' takes on sex ed and health "care" policies like this potential one, you really have a recipe for profits.

I am so very grateful to the Ontario healthcare policies (re: birth), and am genuinely frightened --by and for-- Americans for these issues.

[damedini]

I agree as well. But really, are they gonna arrest a mother and a newborn who don't make it to the hospital in time? I'd like to see it, cause it'd be the first and last time as son as the ACLU got on the case.
Oh gawd I fear a McCain victory!

[eliskimo]

Many people already *assume* that it is illegal to have a home birth. My sister ran into this with her third child, who they chose to have at home (with her MiL, an RN attending). It came up in a conversation with one of Kevin's co-workers who then called the Georgia DFCS (Division of Family and Children Services). So the first two weeks of her new daughter's life, when my sister should have been bonding with her, she spent being investigated for child abuse.

[sionnach_sidhe]

That's just terrible.

[jodibaybee]

Giving birth in hospital in the US is astronomically expensive, as is every other hospital expense there (an overnight stay in hospital costs roughly three times what it does in Ontario). I have a friend without health insurance who only managed to have a hospital birth thanks to the hard work of a social assistance case worker who fudged enough numbers to make my friend eligible for assistance with the costs of that birth. And in the state she currently lives in even this would have been impossible.

[sionnach_sidhe]

I've been following some pregnancy fora on Ravelry lately, and was astounded at the costs women/families pay for hospital births in the US (especially compared to midwifery costs). One was entitled "Worried about costs", and I foolishly thought "oh, yes, I can relate to this, what about clothing/cribs/etc.", when in reality the poor woman was thinking expressly about the birth process alone.

While it seems most midwives aren't covered by insurance, they seem to run $2000-3000 for full-term care + birth attendance. In comparison, hospital births X% covered by good insurance still seems to cost $1500-3000 -- and that is just the birth. I've read of ultrasounds costing $400-800 each time, and don't even know what the rest of standard visits & monitoring tests cost. I just can't believe it. Thank the PTB I live here!

[finitedancer]

*sputter, fume, hiss*!!!! I am sick of the medical industry taking " what if" scenarios and turning them into excuses to control a families chibirth expereince and convince women that chidbirth is some sort of life threatening illness!!! I...Am....So....MAD

[sionnach_sidhe]

You're not the only one.

I think something that really frustrates me is the way that some women undermine the choice/practice of homebirth & midwifery even as they appear to stand up for it.

Case in point: this recent BlogHer article where the author both presents the case against the AMA, along with celebrity responses, and yet describes her speeding-to-the-delivery room birth story, complete with a description of her "terrible" tear and "immediate and extensive surgery". It just made me wonder -- if she had been labouring with the help and supervision or a trained midwife (or even a doula), would her tearing have been so extensive? or was it perhaps because instead of relaxing as much as possible with the entirety of the birth process, she was speeding along the road with a panicked husband? I'll admit I don't know, the tear could have been just as bad, but I still wonder (and also counter that midwives are trained medical professionals who are fully equipt with the skills to deal with the "side effects" of birth, if not

[gulfpirate]

That's a very well-balanced article. I LOL'd at "size and speed of exit," as if the baby had inherited the NASCAR mentality from its white-knuckled drive to the hospital and launched itself from the gate the minute the starting light went green. Accompanied by images of the facing wall adorned with a crash pad and baby-catching basket, just in case.

I wonder how long it will be before hospitals will offer "birth packages" costing different amounts, based on what a family can afford or how much medical monkeying they'd like. Oh, you need immediate and extensive surgery? That's pricey. A crash pad and catcher basket for hi-speed deliveries? That'll run you $2000. I'm reminded of Peter Venkman's great line from Ghostbusters: "No, it's a lot of money, we understand, we can just put this guy right back in there..."

[sionnach_sidhe]

It is balanced in that the author makes it clear she's seen both sides of the birth spectrum, but I still think that this approach is similar to someone saying "Oh, of course I'm Pro Choice -- but as a Christian I'd never let my daughter have one..." She states that she supports homebirth, but gives long personal 'evidence' on home homebirth would have been a dangerous choice for herself. I find it undermining. (But it is still a well-written piece, for all my criticism