Monday, April 9, 2007

What's the deal?

So I have a cousin who is a NICU nurse. I don't see her very often, maybe once every couple years. Well we had an Easter get together since my mom was in town and she was there. As soon as she heard I had a home birth she went on and on about this could go wrong and that could go wrong. What do you say? I told her that I had a perfect home birth and that everything went just fine, even with an abruption. Well she then went on and one about the two babies in the hospital that she is taking care of who were born at home and how things didn't look good for them. She even said one will "Be riding the short bus when he gets older" WHAT!?!?! I realized at that point that no matter what I said she would always be 'right' so I just stopped talking about it. The sad thing was that I didn't even bring it up, someone else did. I didn't want to talk about it with her because I knew she would respond badly, I just didn't think it would be that badly. Of course the only home birth babies she would see are the ones where things went badly, she is a NICU nurse! She doesn't see that there are plenty of babies born at home that are healthy, and better off than their hospital born peers in the long run. Would it be worth getting all the research showing that home birth is safer than hospital birth to show her? Or is it better to just let it go? As my mom is in town for a week, there is a good chance I will see her again.... Maybe next time I will be prepared with a little more information.....

1 comment:

Brandi said...

How frustrating! Does she know the reason why they were in NICU? It's not always a result of the birth itself, so no matter where the mothers were, the babies would probably still have those problems. Take Jodie's baby for instance. I don't think you need to have more info for her. She's going to think what she wants no matter what you tell her. Unfortunately many people are that way. Ugh!