Discovery Home & Health

[] Am having withdrawal symptoms today! What no diaries?!
I really must get a hobby!! []

I am also having withdrawral symptoms for Home Birth diaries. Babies room is soooo awful (designs are great but the birthing is not great).

Hello!

I just watched some of the new series of homebirth diaries saved on my sky+. Discovery..you have done a marvelous job! How refreshing to see women actually IN LABOUR! Rather than those horrible American programmes with women sitting in their gowns with epidurals in there backs. Mums NEED to know that it is OK to make noise and also that labour does hurt but it CAN be pain that is positive. Please do more of this programme and less of Portland "Inductions"! I feel soooo reassured that I was not abnormal by being vocal in my labour seeing the women who had their babies at home. Next baby I will have at home definately! Please say thankyou to the women who let us share their births with viewers.[][][]

Another thing that I love about this programme is that I can share it with my children (the 2 eldest are 9 & 6) and talk to them about what is happening and why the mums are making those noises and they (the children) can see that it is a normal process and that it may hurt during labour but how happy the mums are after the babies are born.

Hopefully my daughter will become a mother one day and I want her to think of birth as something normal, not a horrible hospitalised experience.

Thanks again for showing these and can we have some more please :-)

Hi Emerax,

I totally agree. I am fed up with hospital dramas portraying labour as something you sit and chat through and then the good doctor comes and "delivers" you. In homebirth diaries we see women in labour and giving birth and somehow it makes it less scary. One of the babies needed some help (i think it was the midwives baby) and it just shows how even if at home the baby can be helped. I think that is reassuring. It also made me think what would have happened to that baby if the mum had been given lots of drugs like the one to make you contract and an epidural? OR even worse if she had going to the portland and had been given that tablet that is not liscensed to give [B)]..........[]

Another thing I forgot to say is that someone mentioned homebirth being all "New Age". I think these programmes show that most of the women are no way what I would consider "new age"!! Most of them seem to be very normal women without a joint or insense in sight!!
Why should homebirth just be for hippys? I think that sensible people wanting to avoid all the hospital nasty bugs and risks are choosing homebirth. Some of my friends who have had there babies at home are not at all like hippys! Just shows what impact stupid hospital FICTIONAL dramas have on general publics views. []

It always seems that there is more Portland Babies than homebirths. A shame becoz the doctors are so annoying. They seem to take over and treat the women like helpless frail ill people. [V][xx(][V]. It is much better seeing the women in their own houses where nobody is interfering![^][][^]

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Originally posted by wizzard
[br]Victoria, birth shouldn't be traumatic - it should be a beautiful, calm incredible experience. Perhaps if you hadn't been in the hospital setting you wouldn't have been so traumatised and neither would your husband. Get real! Incidentally, things go wrong in hospital because of the interventions that happen. At home, your body does what it is designed to do itself, hence, no drama, no trauma

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You know nothing about me so please do not comment on me as though you do. Not that it is any of your business what I base MY opinions on but I did have a traumatic experience with the birth of my baby. The cord was around his neck twice and he had to be given oxygen and was taken to the SCBU before I could even see him. I am thankful that I was in hospital with a wonderful care team that looked after me and my son. Hospital is not a bad place, the doctors, nurses and staff in general were caring and supportive and deserve a lot of credit for what they do even though a lot of people give them bad press.

Opinions are meant to be shared and discussed not torn apart and abused. I do not want a home birth and I will never want a home birth and I will state this FACT where and whenever I wish to. So you get real and get off your high horse. Grow up!

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Originally posted by jj55555
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Originally posted by Victoria
[br]Don't knock something you obviously know nothing about!

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Wow - I am over-whelmed by the amount of people that feel it appropriate to bully someone else because of their opinions. Are you that shallow that you think everyone must agree with you or they are wrong.

As for the new-age comment. I meant that I was old-fasioned. Not that the process of home birth was new-age. Talk about jumping down someone's throat for expressing their thoughts and feelings.

Communism is obviously not dead.....

you were in hospital and followed hospital protocol, but i do not believe that you were safer there.
you seem very defensive and reliant on the services that the NHS provide. ever thought of educating yourself?
and before you make left wing comments, i suggest you understand that it is you who have bought the party line, not those in support of homebirth.

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Originally posted by miss_hooley
[br]you were in hospital and followed hospital protocol, but i do not believe that you were safer there.
you seem very defensive and reliant on the services that the NHS provide. ever thought of educating yourself?
and before you make left wing comments, i suggest you understand that it is you who have bought the party line, not those in support of homebirth.

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Oh for crying out loud. Do you live in the real world? The real world where things are not straight forward and people like me rely on the NHS. I had to go to hospital every week of my pregnancy because I had complications that could have meant that both me and my child could have died. I was safer in hospital. Period. How dare you tell me to educate myself when you know nothing about me. I meet regulary with my ante-natal group of whom, one had a home birth, one had a ten week prem baby, one had a baby that had to have major surgery to correct a hip problem. All of whom thank the NHS everyday for what they did and continue to do for their babies.

I am defensive of the NHS. These people work damn hard and people slate them by what they hear third party and what they hear in the press. It's a rare occasion that people do get to hear of the day in day out good hospitals do. Wake up and take a good look around, not everything smells of roses and we can't all live in a world of bunny rabbits and candy floss.

I am so sad at the amount of NHS bashing that appears to be going on in this thread. Does no one appreciate how much the NHS does for the UK? The staff are over worked and under paid and this is the same old story of 20 years ago. Yes there are new bugs that can be passed to us through some hospital stays and no it is not good enough and some people might feel safer away from a hospital ward - lucky you. Can no one give thanks to the NHS for daily helping those with cancer, the elderly who have no family or couples with children who are not blessed with good health as yours seem to be or are these people to be forgotten about because MRSA is the latest hot topic. Have you also forgotten that the midwives and health visitors that attend home births are usually supplied by the NHS? That a lot of the midwives and health visitors were probably nurses once upon time, working hard in these hospitals that you judge to be so unclean and unsafe. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, as I have expressed in this post, and I am sure someone will disagree with me just as strongly as I might disagree with them. But do you have to resort to insults to make a point? Someone mentioned that they felt bullied for giving their opinion, that's such a shame that someone should feel attacked for being honest. Maybe a little more thought could be given to some posts before they are actually posted.

oh i do live in the real world, where homebirth is a very normal part of life. i dare fairly easily to tell you to educate yourself as you obviously aren't and do not want to take responsiblity for yourself and your child, a fall back means you have someone to blame, personally i prefer to be in control of my life and those lives of my children based on the information i have chosen to educate myself with. not just because someone who doesn't know me and who deals on nonreality that birth is not a normal part of life. it is and can happen outside a hospital and a lot safer. a friend of mine had a (unplanned) homebirth with her 10 week prem twins, one of which the NHS managed to kill off, i'll take my chances with my knowledge, not the blind faith in those who believe that they are the only ones with answers.
candy floss is bad for your teeth, i wouldn't dream of living in that world, but the bunny rabbits i'm partical to, i have 3 of them and they are very real.

quote:

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Originally posted by miss_hooley
[br]oh i do live in the real world, where homebirth is a very normal part of life. i dare fairly easily to tell you to educate yourself as you obviously aren't and do not want to take responsiblity for yourself and your child, a fall back means you have someone to blame, personally i prefer to be in control of my life and those lives of my children based on the information i have chosen to educate myself with. not just because someone who doesn't know me and who deals on nonreality that birth is not a normal part of life. it is and can happen outside a hospital and a lot safer. a friend of mine had a (unplanned) homebirth with her 10 week prem twins, one of which the NHS managed to kill off, i'll take my chances with my knowledge, not the blind faith in those who believe that they are the only ones with answers.
candy floss is bad for your teeth, i wouldn't dream of living in that world, but the bunny rabbits i'm partical to, i have 3 of them and they are very real.

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I do not wish to get into an arguement with you miss hooley as you seem like you are a very angry woman, but I have to take issue with your statement that the NHS killed off a baby. Obviously I do not know the circumstances and if NHS staff truly did set out to kill the baby then I am sure it made headline news at some point in the past and I would be truly mortified. But if this is not case then that it a terrible statement to make and I think you should rethink your choice of words. You may want to accuse me of being defensive of the NHS too, (as it seems that you do not like those that see good in what the NHS tries to achieve), and you would be right. I was seriously ill a little while back myself and the NHS gave me the opportunity to continue my life and I would not be here if it were not for them.

its called negligence. i am disappointed with a system that tries to prevent women from making informed choices and acting on them. having made active decisions against medical advice because i know my rights, my body and am confident in my ability in making informed choices.