AMA: Ricki Don't Know 'Bout Birthin' No Babies

16. Why suffer like cattle in the field if you don't have to! Gee - so much can go wrong during a delivery that it shouldn't be taken lightly. I almost bled out during my delivery in 2000, and firmly believe I may not have made it if I had been at home. People think because there are babies born every day that it is no big deal. It is a very big deal, and so much can go wrong. Even with today's technology and advanced medical training - there are still women who die during childbirth. Don't be one of them! HAVE YOUR BABY AT A HOSPITAL.

Posted at 1:35PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Julianna

17. Babies have a better chance at surviving their birth if they're born in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Finland and the Czech Republic than they do in the US. Our infant mortality rate among industrialized countries is actually high (more babies die here), and it's not because a small percentage of mothers choose home birth. Being born in a hospital in no way guarantees a baby will survive. Women have the right to choose how they want their birthing experience to be, and I think the ACOG should be ashamed of itself. The goal here is to keep the money where they want it - in their pockets. If the AMA approves this resolution, it will lose a great deal of credibility in favor of making doctors richer.

Posted at 1:36PM on Jun 17th 2008 by hm

18. I am shocked at the lack of information people have about home births.
A midwife is a RN nurse with additional training in pregnancy and chilbirth.
There knowledge is extensive and their priorty is their patients well being and the delivery of a healthy baby.
Should there be any trouble that would need the help of a hospital or a Doctor they take them right away.
We are lucky to have peole like Midwives who devote there full attention to pregnany and childbirth.

Posted at 1:43PM on Jun 17th 2008 by kat7

19. The American Medical Association is a completely irrelevant organization.

Posted at 1:38PM on Jun 17th 2008 by RJinchicago

20. I could care less if someone chooses to have their child at home or on the subway. If they or the child die because of that decision than so be it. I'm tired of all these stupid laws. If I had chosen to have my son at home he would be dead and I would have had to live with that. As it was the doctors barely got it right when saving his life so who knows what's safe anymore.

I also liked the plus sized Ricki more.

Posted at 1:48PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Mel

21. My grandmother gave birth to 10 kids......9 at home, 1 in the hospital. My great grandmother had 10 children ALL born at home, my grandmother was the youngest.
19 of the 20 were born at home and survived. The only reason my uncle was born in the hospital was because it was the new 'in' thing at the time........a 'novelty'.
You can bet that the birth at the hospital was the LAST for my grandmother, it was horrible for her. She was confined to a bed, unable to get up and move around, and had to stay there 3 days after giving birth.........not a great thing when you had 9 other children at home!!

Posted at 1:43PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Janedose

22. My sister-in-law had both of my nieces at home with a mid-wife in the 60's. Luckily there were no complications but it drove my mother crazy worrying something would go wrong.

Posted at 1:44PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Kitty Angel

23. Kat and Dixiegirl, my mother had four children in the hospital. Only with my eldest sister, did she need to be there. In fact, when the third was born, they refused to believe she was ready to have the baby although she said so until the nurse finally checked to shut her up and she ended up giving birth in the hall where she had been waiting for a delivery room. I was induced because the doctor wanted to go on vacation. He was so unprepared for my birth that the nurse literally had to catch me to keep my head from hitting the floor. (at least my mother said the nurse caught me. My older siblings always teased me that she hadn't.)
All the other children have been born in hospitals but the hospitals failed my second sister. They should have done an emergency c-section when my oldest nephew was born but because her labor had stopped they sent her home because her waters hadn't broken. That was because it was one of the hottest weeks on record in her home town and she had reabsorbed the amniotic fluid. My nephew inhaled meconium and was technically dead when he was born. The doctors were able to revive him but he has epilepsy as a result. Yes, the doctors saved him because she gave birth in a hospital but if she had had a midwife instead of an obstetrician, she would never have been sent home after her waters broke. With my second nephew, they noticed the gestational diabetes that they had ignored the first time and she had a scheduled c-section.
When I had my daughter, the hospital sent me home three times saying I wasn't ready even after my waters broke. When they finally agreed I was in labor, my pains were two and a half minutes long and two minutes apart. My husband drove at full speed to the hospital and if I had not known enough not to push, she would have been born in the car. Even after we got to the hospital at 6:05 am, the resident on call, the same one who'd sent me home, didn't believe me until she stuck her hand in almost to the elbow and realized I was fully effaced and dilated and ready to have the baby, even though I'd told her that two hours earlier when my waters broke. Then she nearly died because she'd been in the birth canal so long. I was very lucky, unlike her cousin she ended up completely normal.
My friend, who had both her children by midwives, had no complications at all and she was able to give birth in the comfort of her own home and not on a hard, narrow delivery cot. Nor was she forced to eat the disgusting hospital until somebody decided she and her baby was okay and let her leave.
I'm all for hospitals if there are problems but I'm sorry, patti, most bitrths do not have problems and hospitals can't always help when there are.

Posted at 1:46PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Boston Belle

24. I did the whole natural thing, no epidural, no drugs, with a Doula (midwife). 36 hour labor. In the hospital. Thank God I was in the hopsital because I hemmoraghed (sp?) afterward and required a blood transfusion. Afterward, my doctor reflected that anything can happen, even with a "healthy" pregnancy and birth, and that's why you should be at a hospital. I'm all for natural, but I couldn't agree more.

Posted at 1:47PM on Jun 17th 2008 by LeeLee

25. I had failure to progress and my son's heartbeat was dropping so I had an emergency c-section. Not sure what would have happened if I was at home and not at the hospital. You never know when failure to progress is going to happen, that risk alone is enough for me to choose a hospital birth. Can't understand why anyone would want to even take the chance of risking their babies life.

Posted at 1:45PM on Jun 17th 2008 by dev

26. I would like to see someone try and make me go to a hospital to have a baby......

Posted at 1:50PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Zeus

27. yes, there are a ton of things that can go wrong during the birthing process that would need immediate medical interventions, like a C section. Midwives do wonderful work ... but many work in hospitals these days. I didn't have an OB/GYN treat me during my pregnancy or deliver my son, I had a wonderful midwife, who delivered my son IN a hospital with a NICU! I had all my bases covered!

Leave Ricki alone!

Posted at 6:06PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Summer

28. Ok well, I want to know when it became anyone else’s business when and
how a woman gives birth. I mean stuff goes wrong, but woman haven't
always give birth in hospitals. I think people need to do some
research on Certified Nurse Midwives before expressing their opinion
on home births. Also I think that people need to know that if she
would have had a troubled pregnancy she probably would have had the
babies in the hospital. But once again it's the government trying to
tell woman what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

Posted at 1:53PM on Jun 17th 2008 by wow

29. Most regions/counties in America have excellent free to low cost prenatal care/hospital delivery so there usually is no reason for a woman to have a baby at home.

The 2 women I knew personally who had their babies at home had secret subtance abuse problems that would have meant the authorities would have had all sorts of reasons to intervene at a hospital.

Posted at 2:00PM on Jun 17th 2008 by chicken stripper

30. It's about money. If healthy women started having midwives and home births,
the doctors and hospitals would lose their cash!!!!!!!!!

Posted at 2:05PM on Jun 17th 2008 by rachel