Bag's Rants

Perceptions again.

Perception is everything. One of the things I try to pass on to others.

This article on people giving birth at home makes me wonder about the conflicting advice in the NHS. On the one hand we have Dr Crippen making his statements, which make more sense than the other arguments I hear, and we have this band of touchy feely people saying they feel out of control in hospital and want to give birth at home.

I can understand that their perception is that when they are in hospital they are not the centre of attention nor do they have anyone on their beck and call. Unfortunately, that's how I feel when I go in for my broken bones, for my cuts and grazes, if fact for everything I go to hospital for. The perception is that everyone is a cog in a machine.

So why should people giving birth be given special treatment. Why should we all pay for a team to go to someone's house and give them individual attention when a single team can provide the same care for several mums to be in one central location. A much cheaper option.

My only caveat would be to those giving birth at home is that if anything happens to the child due to lack of support which is available in hospital then they are taking the risk not the NHS. We will send one midwife and that's your lot. You take the risks associated with that decision. The way we are going we will have to take along a fully equipped hospital when we go on a home birth or we will get sued.

posted by Bag @ 1:16 pm