Homebirthing death..

It is sad that this birth made the news just because it was a homebirth. I know of two C-section mother deaths (and one of the babies) this year in SA.

One was at 28 weeks, baby held on for a few days and then joined his mommy. But the mom's death was because of surgery complications and had nothing to do with the pre-term labor. Unfortunately she had 2 other kids under the age of 5.

The other was at term, baby is alive but mommy died 3 days after the c-sec due to surgical complications.

Still, I believe birth is a normal physiological event and special circumstances are real, but rare. I believe it is safe to have a baby in SA which ever method you choose, but exceptions do happen and we have to treat them as that, the exception, NOT the rule!!

Hi Cat,

Thanks for the feedback, I have heard that and I would make sure I had a back up hospital with Gynea from the start.

but to be honest, I hated the hospital experience and if pregnancy and birth of number two goes anything like number 1 then I shouldn't need the back up plan

See CAT at my vision, you would still be able to have an emergancy c-section, or actually let you try deliver naturally if early labour (since it is generally much better for a prem)

Nikki I most certainly will! Will be a year or so, I want to buy a plot, or home that is big enough to run it from.

Nikki I was booked in at Genesis Clinic with my son but if you land up having an early delivery (before 37 weeks) you are left running around looking for another hospital while you are in labour. My son arrived at 32 weeks and I had to find another hospital myself with water running down my legs.

Your idea is FANTASTIC. Contact me when you're ready to put this idea out there.

Yup, hospital bungles, no one ever reports them, mainly because the medical fraternity is like an old boys club where its very hard to find someone who will stand up and admit that one of their colleagues made a mistake.

I know of 2 birth related deaths in Durban in hospitals in the last month (private hospitals, one was a tragic case which would have happened anywhere, the other has a lot of question arks over it. Neither have made the news. Had either happened at home they would have!

This is very sad, my Dr was one of those who tried the scare tactics, kept telling me that natural birth laying down was best, told me horror stories about giving birth squatting and incontinence and I changed Dr's 2 days before P was born and he let me squat and it was much easier to push my daughter out.

I dint like the hospital vibe, but being a first time mom I was a bit anxious and went the hospital route, the care I got at a private hospital (sandton) was shocking, call bell didn't work in my private room, I nearly fainted from the bleeding after birth and my husband had to scream for help, they never took me for a Sitz bath, didn't give me my anti inflammatory meds until I left, kept forgetting to bring me food and kept taking about my c section even though I had natural birth and then they let us walk out without checking the security band on my daughters arm, so frankly its probably more dangerous at a hospital ( other than high risk pregnancies of course) When we have baby no 2 I am seriously considering Genesis clinic

Not birth related, but just to give you an idea of how dangerous hospitals can be my uncle went to a private hosital wehn he fell off a roof about 1.5 years ago and they gave him an overdose of morphione ( calculated his weight wrong) and now he has severe brain damge, required roudn the clock care and will proabaly never work again, the lawyers working on his case, say that negligence in private hospitals is at an all time high....

Not trying to scare anyone, but just agree with MissessMom that hospital deaths aren't reported with such vigor !