Home » costa rica, homebirth, natural birth, travel

Homebirth in Costa Rica

13 July 2008 28 views 3 Comments

I just read this nice article summarizing the birth options in Costa Rica: Natural Childbirth Choices in Costa Rica.

Since we plan on hopefully having a homebirth in Costa Rica, this is great information. When we were originally researching the idea of moving to Costa Rica, I actually had a lot of trouble finding information about options for natural childbirth in the country. I suppose that’s because homebirth is a bit of an underground option there still. The article above gives a good summary of the issues going on in childbirth in the country, and how to deal with it as a consumer.

A friend of mine recently asked me whether I was afraid to give birth in Costa Rica. I told her no. But I think if you were someone not that educated about their cesarean rate, and what interventions go on in hospitals, you might be right to be fearful of birth in Costa Rica. I’m not afraid because, even though I am not pregnant yet, we have already set up the necessary contacts for us to have a homebirth in Costa Rica. I know that if I am forced to go to a hospital due to some life-threatening emergency, I will get good medical care in Costa Rica. But I won’t allow myself to be forced into an unnecessarily medicalized birth unless it is truly necessary. And in a country where some hospitals have greater than an 80% cesarean rate, I’ll be on my guard. But frankly, I’m on my guard in this country (USA), where I’ve been hearing of hospitals with a 50% cesarean rate and climbing. From what I hear, some of the New Jersey rates are the worst. So how different are we, really, than Costa Rica?

Plus – and this is really one of the keys in my mind – I know Arp has my back on this one. I know that no doctor with a scalpel in his hand is going to come close to getting past my husband without there being a very good reason. When you are in the throws of labor, there just isn’t another substitute for a partner who will do anything to protect your right to a normal, natural birth.

3 Comments »

  • Summer said:

    When I read about c-section numbers that high I have to stop and walk away cursng before I can even read the rest. It’s just ugh, arg, erg!!!

    Summer’s last blog post..Contest Winner

  • Trish (author) said:

    Believe me – I understand! I actually had trouble believing those numbers when I first heard them. My theory is that it has to get really bad before things can get good again. Sort of like the Bush presidency. Of course, with c-sections, women and babies will have to die first, before the changes come. Wait. Lots of people are dying in the Bush presidency too. Huh. More similarities.

  • Erin said:

    My friend just had a homebirth a few months ago, and it was a wonderful experience. Let me know if you’d like to get in contact with her. (I know you’re getting close and probably have all arrangements in place, but just in case.)

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

CommentLuv Enabled

Subscribe without commenting