FET at 47. Is delivering at home safe ?

[pg0301]

I am 47 and 6 mo pregnant single baby after  donor FET. So far all is fine. After reading a bit  I want an unmedicated labor delivery and have been contemplating the possibility of doing it at home with a midwife. What do you think, has anyone there done it ? I have no yet discussed it with my doctor.

[Ecologic]

I would never do an at home delivery! I had a very smooth pregnancy, I traveled via plane from week 1 to week 34 for my job and had absolutely no problems at all.

But like Adgal the delivery of my baby boy could have gone very bad! I was full term and had gone to the hospital to be induced and that's where they realized that not only the contractions had already started (I had not felt them at all!) but that my baby's heart rate was dropping at each contraction. I quickly ended up with an emergency C-section and I am so very grateful for it. Still shiver at what would have happened if I had not been in the hospital by coincidence (the day before I was still dilated to only 0.5).

[happynifer]

as long as your pregnancy is uneventful and you don't go into labor before 37 weeks, then yes you can deliver safely at home.  we were thinking about a home birth until we found a great birth center in the area run by midwives and i could deal without my dogs and cats trying to be a part of the birth.  plus they have a hot tub and a birthing pool on site and i am thinking of a water birth.
definitely go with a well trained midwife.  
definitely have an emergency plan in place.
statistics on midwife attended home births show less unneeded interventions, far less csection rate (<5% compared to up to 33% for hospital setttings) and no increase in complications.  
given the number of sick people and bad bugs in a hospital, i would rather not have myslef or my newborn exposed unless there is a medical reason to be in a hospital setting.
midwives can monitor the baby's heart rate using a doppler as needed at home so that is not a problem. there is ZERO scientific evidence that continuous fetal monitoring has any benefit to the baby over periodic monitoring, and being tied down to a hospital bed hooked up to the monitor over the course of a labor has been shown to result in prolonged labors and the need for interventions since mom can't move around to get into better labor positions.
so definitely something to look into :)

[adgal]

Congrats on your pregnancy!  

I think this is a personal decision and one that much thought should be put into it.  Things such as an emergency plan are important in the off chance something goes wrong.  My big question would be is the midwife able to properly monitor things like babies cardiac activity.  I don't mean to frighten you, but my delivery in January was one where had I not gone to the hospital, my little guy might not be here today.  He had to be delivered via emergency c-section as his heart rate was dropping dramatically with each contraction. I had essentially no amniotic fluid at that point and baby was in distress.

Situations like mine are not overly common and this is NOT intended to frighten anyone.  Many do have successful home births.  It's just very important to ensure that even at home, the midwife is able to properly monitor things and you are able to get help quickly if necessary, and part of the research that should be done.  At the end of the day you should do what is right for you and your family.

Congrats again and I wish you a healthy and uneventful pregnancy!!