My View on Home Births

I'm just watching the news and a woman is shown along with her lawyer because she had a "botched" home birth and her nearly 2-year old child suffered brain damage and still cannot sit up. I would like to tell women out there: The birth of your child is NOT THE TIME TO PLAY AROUND with life or death. Yes, thousands of people have had succesful homebirths, and I understand that a lot of people don't want drugs during labor. YOU think that when you are in labor you will be able to be in charge of what's going. Well, let me tell you this. YOU will be in SO MUCH pain that you will not be able to control what's around and make decisions. If you chose to have a home birth, water birth, or any of that, you better have a plan if anything goes awry. IT IS NOT WORTH losing your child, or giving your child permanent disabilities because you chose an unconventional way of doing things. Yeah, ok, women gave birth naturally for centuries. Yeah, I understand that, but the mortality rate for women and children during child birth was way higher then. If you don't like hospitals, nurses, etc., well, put on your big girl panties and suck it up. If, God forbid, you may need emergency services you want to be at the hospital, not sitting at home wasting precious time, and messing with your BABY'S LIFE. Yes, that's what you are doing. I don't give a shit if you think an epidural is going to mess your baby up. IT WON'T trust me. Plus labor sucks a A LOT. It was designed that way. Believe me, when you start to feel someone is ripping your body apart, you'll be wishing you had the fucking epidural anyway. Sorry for the f-bombs, but it's true. I love both of my babies enough for one, having a C-section, and the other one having an epidural and being at the hospital where she was safe when she started grunting right after she was born. That episode really made me think, what if all these doctors weren't here, how would I know she's OK? The hour that she was away from me under observation was probably the longest hour of my life. And if you don't believe anything will go wrong, well, congratulations for your optimism for one of the most dangerous things you will do in your life which is giving birth to another human being. Don't gamble with life, be safe and keep your baby safe by giving birth at the hospital. Again, I know that lots of people have done it both ways, but why gamble? Visit Hurt by Homebirth if you need some examples. I can barely read that blog, I just sob and cry as both of my babies have had some kind of complication, and I can't simply imagine carrying a child for 9 months to then see him or her die to something stupid like wanting to have a home birth and not have any real doctors around. Please, please, think about your child before considering this, it is NOT WORTH IT.