Doctors Words on Homebirth
By Danell Swim
April 10, 2008
By Dr Kate Pickering
Discussing childbirth with pregnant women is always a bit of a challenge for a GP, particularly when the woman wants a home birth – preferably with all the extras such as  delivering under water, with her whole family present, lavender oil burning and a video camera on the go to record the whole thing.
My heart usually sinks as I attempt to look even slightly engaged with a member of my own sex who in my mind has lost the plot.
The General Medical Council is not on our side. Instead it would have us GPs at this point turn into robot doctors, enabling the woman to make her choice and do what she wants.
The logic is that the customer (sorry, patient) is both right and well informed. And why not? The Internet has taught her all about how great home birth is and that the awful doctors are irrationally biased against it. We are in the post-Shipman era where the doctor’s opinion and judgment is to be considered potentially dangerous and certainly not to be trusted.
Well, unfortunately, I struggle with conforming to that attitude. Home births to first-time mums are simply dangerous, quite apart from the horrible mess that it all makes; birthing pools full of poo, wee and blood are not nice places.
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Why is it that most docs turn into 12 year olds when talking about water birth? “OMG, there’s going to be poop and pee? Ewwww!”
Great blog!