What happens if you’re injured during a home birth?

injured during a home birth
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Wondering what happens if you are injured during a home birth? Here’s what to expect…

Every year, 1 in 50 births take place at home which can be as safe as giving birth at the hospital, as long as you follow the protocols set out by the NHS. However, when there are birth injuries to mothers, it’s much easier to treat them when they’re in a hospital than if they’re at home.

So, what does happen if you are injured during a home birth?

In this post, we’re going to discuss what the NHS recommendations are for ensuring you have a successful home birth and what happens if you are injured during a home birth.

What Does the NHS Recommend if You’re Giving Birth at Home?

To make sure your home birth goes as smoothly as possible, the NHS has laid out some recommendations.

The first thing they say you must consider is whether this is your first or second child. If this is your first-time giving birth, then doing it at home actually increases the risk of serious problems. This risk increases from 5 in 1,000 for a hospital birth to 9 in 1,000 for a home birth.

However, if this is your second baby, a well-planned home birth is just as safe as having it in a hospital or midwife-led unit.

Secondarily, if you have any medical conditions that could disrupt the birthing procedure or potentially cause you significant harm, it’s much safer to give birth in hospital where specialists can see to you and check that you’re okay.

If this is your second baby and you’re free of any interfering medical conditions, you should be good to give birth at home. All you need to do now is have your midwife arrange for members of the midwifery team to help and support you.

Make sure to ask your midwife the following questions:

  • If I needed to be transferred to hospital, how long would it take?
  • Which hospital would I be transferred to?
  • Would I have a midwife with me all the time?
  • How do I get a birthing pool?

What Happens if You Sustain an Injury During a Home Birth?

In the event that you sustain an injury whilst giving birth at home, you’ll be transferred to your nearest hospital.

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Regardless of whether the injury you’ve sustained is serious or not, you’ll always be transferred by ambulance, accompanied by the community midwife. This is because ambulance staff can maintain communication with obstetric staff and cut through traffic.

Once you get to the hospital, your care is usually transferred to a hospital-based midwife from your community midwife, but this isn’t always the case.

You can decline to go to the hospital if you really don’t want to, in which case the community midwife will continue to provide you with basic care with support from the obstetric registrar and their supervisor who may wish to speak with you.

Heading to Hospital

If you do end up going to the hospital, what happens when you get there is dependent on what injury you’ve sustained. Here’s a quick list of the injuries that would require a hospital visit and how they’re treated:

  • Antepartum haemorrhage (vaginal bleeding before labour), indicating that the placenta is starting to separate from the uterus. At the hospital this injury would require continual monitoring of the baby’s heart throughout your labour.
  • Pre-labour Rupture of Membranes (PROM) is when your waters break before labour has started making your baby more susceptible to developing infection. At the hospital this would be treated with antibiotics and your baby’s condition monitored.
  • Vaginal tears can happen when the vagina doesn’t stretch enough to accommodate the baby’s head. The tears range from mild to severe, so the amount of surgical repair required depends on the level of damage.
  • Broken bones, such as a fractured coccyx or separated pubic symphysis (where the left and right bones of the pelvic girdle separate), can take place during your home birth. These will usually heal on their own but can take up to eight months to fully heal.
  • Uterine inversion is a serious injury where the placenta remains attached to the uterus and pulls it inside-out when it exits the body. The doctor will either have to reinsert the uterus or perform an emergency hysterectomy.
  • Nerve damage can cause a range of problems depending on the nerves involved. Injury to the femoral nerve can cause numbness in the legs, and injury to the pelvic nerve can cause incontinence, both of which are treated accordingly by your doctor.
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There are also injuries that can be sustained once you’ve given birth to your child that will also require a trip to the hospital. This might include a retained placenta that needs to be removed, or postpartum haemorrhage, where the uterus doesn’t contract after birth and drugs are needed to control the bleeding.

These injuries all sound scary but thankfully most of them are uncommon with a risk of around 5 in 1,000 births. The main thing to take away from this list is that no matter what injury you sustain during your home birth, all roads lead to the hospital.

Does Anything Else Happen When You’re Injured During a Home Birth?

In this post, we’ve covered what the NHS recommendations are if you choose to give birth at home and what happens if you sustain an injury.

As you’d expect, there isn’t much more to it. If you sustain an injury whilst giving birth to your child, you’ll have to take a trip to the hospital. Depending on what the injury is, you’ll receive the appropriate treatment, and the hospital staff will take care of you from there.

Please be advised that this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from a trained medical professional. Be sure to consult a medical professional or healthcare provider if you’re seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.

Photo credits:

Parents with baby – Photo by Laura Garcia from Pexels

Ambulance – Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash Newborn baby – Photo by Christian Bowen

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