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I wrote in earlier about having been transferred into the conventional system due to high blood pressure.  I added up the costs of hospital vs. home birth.  The hospital "experience", pre-natal care included, cost $15,331 (I had an uncomplicated vaginal birth with a very lose dose of Pitocin and no pain medication).  In contrast, the home birth midwife charged me $3,000 for pre-natal and postpartum care for me and my baby.  In my opinion, in addition to being significantly less expensive, the home birth midwife's care was much more thorough.  My pre-natal visits with her each lasted about 45 minutes, and she came to my home nearly every day after the baby was born to weigh the baby and make sure everything was going well.

posted 3 years ago
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I planned to have a home birth until 38 weeks into my pregnancy when my blood pressure started to increase and it was decided that I was too high risk.  I was subsequently transferred back into the conventional system, and at 41 weeks my labor was induced with Pitocin.

Having experienced both (at the same time!), I can definitely say that tension exists between the home birth and the hospital midwives.  The home birth midwife came to my birth in the hospital, and though she and the hospital midwife were cordial to one another, it was clear that the hospital midwife felt as though the home birth midwife was stepping on her toes.  At one point when I asked the hospital midwife to please just wait a minute for me to get through a contraction before asking me any more questions and demanding I make decisions, she snapped "do you want me to treat you?"  I knew that outburst resulted more from the presence of the home birth midwife than from anything I said or did, but it was definitely not what I needed.

posted 3 years ago
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