Fear of bleeding after birth is making me afraid to deliver at home

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Permalink Reply by Hannah Ellis on June 4, 2009 at 10:12pm

Midwives are trained to handle an emergancy if it arises...I gave birth naturally and hardly bled at all. Trust your body...women have been giving birth for hundreds of years...You will do great! Talk to your midwife--and work out a plan.

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Permalink Reply by CC on June 5, 2009 at 11:25am

Thanks for all of the great information. My mind is definitely a little more at ease now that i know more about the options in case something like this was to occur. I just recently received my ultrasound results from 16 weeks, everything was great. I think that helped calm the nerves a bit too.

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Permalink Reply by Toya Lane on June 6, 2009 at 5:10am

Bleeding to death is uncommon for homebirth, in fact I've never heard of it or seen it in my 7 years of attending births. Postpartum hemorrhage is rare, but a situation that midwives carefully monitor and can handle. Midwives are always trained to recognize hemorrhage and know how to handle it. They usually carry herbs that aid with stopping the bleeding & contracting the uterus, pitocin, and a host of skills to remedy hemorrhage. I've only seen two cases of pp hemorrhage and each was handled timely and professionally. A really good midwife will be able to discern if the bleeding is beyond what she can handle and transport you in a timely manor. We don't wait until a woman is near death to transport. Bleeding to death should be the least of your concerns when planning a homebirth.

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Permalink Reply by Jese Wiens on June 14, 2009 at 2:18pm

there is a small risk of heavy bleeding after birth, no matter where you are. if you have a trained midwife, they have medications such as pitocin, drawn and ready to give you if needed (a needle in the thigh). this is the same as in the hospital. they are also trained in physical techniques to reduce the size and increase the tone of the uterus, when it clamps down the body naturally stops bleeding. often midwives will have other techniques such as herbs or homeopathy which are also strong medicine to help.
what you can do at home: eat lots of leafy greens leading up to the birth. this will boost vit k in you and your baby. also, stop any fish oils the last week of pregnancy.
i am sure that a midwife can give you more info.
i had an amazing homebirth and i wasn't scared of bleeding at all. some blood is normal. my bleeding stopped right away, placenta came about 20 mins later.

put your energy into creating a positive image of your birth and that will help you to overcome this picture of fear you have. where are the thoughts coming from? previous pregnancy history? family history? friends/movies/birth stories? your intuition? try to find the source of this and then see how much weight to give it.
best wishes for a joyous birth!

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Permalink Reply by Angela on June 15, 2009 at 9:36pm

I actually did not fully deliver my placenta with the birth of my second child. So, I was dangerously bleeding out. My home birth doctor did give me 2 shots of pitocin and then had to go in and manually remove the part of the placenta that would not detach from the uterine wall.

I can tell you that it is actually not that common. Any home birth doctor/midwife worth their pay will know how to deal with this.

In fact, I STILL felt better with my home birth (even though I did bleed out a lot) that I went on to have my third child at home, as well.

Definitely speak with your midwife about this. Ask what he/she would do if this were to happen...what they recommend you do, etc. And I agree with the above poster who mentioned positive visualization. It does help a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Annie MacGregor on August 22, 2009 at 12:56pm

I delivered at home on August 5 and after I delivered the placenta, I was bleeding a bit more than my midwives were comfortable with. They told me this and quickly got me up on my bed so I could lay down and gave me a shot of vitamin K to help with clotting, then monitored me very closely for the next few hours. They also massaged my uterus to help with getting the contractions going to shrink it down. I did have a massive clot the next day, bigger than my fist, but when I called them to tell them, I didn't have any symptoms of blood loss, so there wasn't a big concern. This is one reason that I feel midwives provide better care than doctors and hospitals. My midwives were available to me 24-7 and for any reason. They're still available to me 24-7 and it's 17 days later. If I had gone to the hospital to deliver, I would've had to go to the ER and possibly wait for hours to be told everything was fine. I paged my midwife and she called me back 5 minutes later to tell me I was fine, while I waited in the comfort of my home.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Walker on December 5, 2009 at 9:34pm

I had a homebirth this past Jan and am also in the process of becoming a midwife. You worries are understandable but midwives are very trained. If you do hemmorage more than likelyt it will be stopped easily and also you will get to keep your Uterus which if in the hospital you prob woulnd't. Let your fears go and relax. Anxiety slows birth and causes fear. It will be fine.

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Permalink Reply by britne noel kalcevic on July 28, 2010 at 12:10pm

you are worring to much

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Permalink Reply by Kassedi on July 31, 2010 at 7:24am

do be weary of cytotech tho i read the fourth revised version of spiritual midwifery and ina mays guide to childbirth and one of those (im not sure which, maybe both) cited that it was not fda approved for inducing labor and it has had very dangerous and many fatal results im not sure if it differs for post partum hemmoraging but i know its a drug that wasnt intended for labor at all.

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Permalink Reply by britne noel kalcevic on August 15, 2010 at 4:03pm

ok that will be good

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