Home birth

I'm getting so sick and tired of defending the choice of having a home birth, that I've actually stopped discussing it, especially with pregnant women. There are so many myths and bad stories (especially old ones), that are made to scare people from choosing to have a home birth. But if you look at the statistics of births gone wrong, and compare mistakes and fatality of home births and hospital births the odds are amazing in the favor of home births ... women would probably not defend and rely on hospital births as much if they only knew.

Of course, the comparison isn't really fair. Most women in Iceland for example, are not introduced to the possibility of home birth unless they are really interested in it them selves, so of course they are ignorant and skeptical about it.
The comparison is also unfair because that if there is a slight hint of a problem or abnormality in a home birth that has started, it's rushed to the hospital without hesitation ... if the home birth starts off in a city or a town with a hospital in it, the medical help is given in the birth at about the same time as if the birth had started off in a hospital room, many people do not know or realize this. The risk in a home birth, because you're not close to medical help from a birth-doctor, equiptment or machines, is minimal.

When it comes to horror stories, I've heard more versions and more horrific stories about hospital births and doctor's mistakes, than about home births ... I guess people have just become immune to those stories ... and of course, those are just stories!

I'm not against hospital births at all, in fact I'm in favor of them for those who choose and need them. Hospital births are most often a calm and wonderful experience without interruption, just the way births should be. Most hospital staff that are involved with deliveries respect the womens wishes for her birth, and of course, most births in general are "normal" wherever they are.
But I'm just frustrated about how people are prejustice against home births without actually knowing anything about them or having experienced them. I don't know how many times I hear sentences like: "I'm all for home birth, but I know that if I had had a home birth my child would not have come out of it alive, because of the complications I had in my birth" ... I could scream sometimes when I hear this, because they obviously do not know anything about home births and do not want to know. I've just stopped commenting and try thinking about something else to stop me from wanting to scream.

Points:

If you plan having a home birth you are assigned a midwife that delivers home births. You go to interviews to her, at the end of the pregnancy she'll even come to your house if you prefer her to. The same midwife is with you during the birth and delivers your baby. The same midwife visits you after the baby is born and teaches you what you need to learn and checks up on you.

If there are any abnormalities in a pregnancy, women not allowed to go ahead with the home birth. There are many signs to a possible abnormal or difficult delivery (high blood pressure etc. etc.), and home birth midwives are trained to spot them, they get to know their women well enough to know what is a bad sign for them.

I know many women who've had home births, I've had two my self, I like the idea of having a choice of your own, about where you feel the most comfortable to give birth. But I do not like how people are kept from knowing the facts about home births, and there for kept from having a real choice.

To me there's a difference between being manipulated to going to the hospital by fear of alternative choices and choosing to go to the hospital because you've been properly introduced to all options and you like the hospital one the best!