There are so many women routinely dangling their babies over the abyss of homebirth death that I could create my own blog based reality show called Homebirth Death Watch. Consider the excitement: unedited, outcome unknown, innocent babies exposed to hideous deaths … by their own mothers.
Perhaps I will.
In our first episode Ariel risked the life of her son Gambit (I’m not kidding about the name!) by insisting on attempting a HBA4C, a homebirth after four Cesareans. She never got anywhere near delivering vaginally and waited until her son was nearly dead (heart rate in the 50’s) before agreeing to a C-section, which had to be done under general anesthesia. But at least he’s alive.
In today’s episode, Ingrid is risking the life of her PREMATURE baby; her membranes have been ruptured for more than 72 hours and she does not know if she’s colonized with group B strep (a known killer of newborns to which premature babies are especially vulnerable) since she refused to be tested.
Ok ladies I need some prayers and support/encouragement.
Currently she’s being encouraged in this idiocy by a Greek chorus of buffoons (“get a pedicure!”) in the Home Birth Support Network.
No, Ingrid, you don’t need support or encouragement (or a pedicure). You need a reality check. Go to the hospital because your baby’s life is in danger!
Once membranes rupture the risk of infection starts to rise and rises precipitously after 24 hours. Premature babies like yours are particularly vulnerable to infection. Your baby could die without you ever feeling a thing.
Refusing group B strep testing was idiotic. Group B strep is the biggest threat to your baby, and, of course, premature babies are especially vulnerable. Why are you douching with Hibiclens; it can’t be because it is natural, right? Your midwife recommended it NOT because it works better than antibiotics but because she can’t keep control of you as a patient if you go to the hospital for antibiotics. Do you really want to let your baby die to improve your midwife’s finances?
No, you CAN’T treat GBS with vitamins, probiotics, echinacea or garlic. Are you really so gullible and desperate to have a homebirth that you will fall for the claim that antibiotics can be replaced with stuff you can buy at the grocery store? Are you willing to risk your baby’s life on that nonsense?
What might be happening to your baby right now?
Here’s what a commentor who is a pathologist wrote in regard to the baby who died after his mother stayed home with ruptured membranes for 5 days:
When I do an autopsy on a stillbirth I always take a section of stomach to look at microscopically. I can physically see the pus in the stomach, clusters of neutrophils, white blood cells that have collected in the fluid and that the baby has subsequently swallowed. I can physically see the pus in the lungs where the baby has aspirated pus cells, because babies practice breathing in utero , and so suck all this pus into their lungs. And you know what? The pus is mixed with squames, skin cells that the baby has shed, and in its last desperate frantic panic it starts to gasp and draws these deep into its lungs.
These babies are literally swimming in a bag full of pus, in a giant bacterial laden boil. They are swimming in it, swallowing it, breathing it, and I see the end result. And you know what else? It makes me despair that there are midwives out there who write this off as normal. Membranes ruptured for 5 days? Not a problem….
And when the baby is born dead, not sleeping, and covered in meconium, and he stinks of bacterial poisons, and I see the pus, I want whoever delivered that baby in front of me, so that they can see this is not a game. This is not a game of ‘ooh, doctors are horrible, they just want to cut you, so let’s pretend there’s nothing wrong’.
Your baby is at even greater risk than a term baby.
Is that what you want? Is a homebirth so important to you that you would let your baby marinate in pus for days?
Sure your baby could still be born fine and not succumb to infection, just like your baby could survive if you drove drunk with him in the backseat, but is it worth the risk?
You’re in the spotlight now, Ingrid. Think carefully about what you are willing to risk. We’re watching and hoping you make the right decision and head to the hospital NOW!
