Navigating Homebirth to Hospital Transfer

One of the biggest issues in our birthcare system is the siloed nature that leads to a lack of collaboration and negatively impacts patient safety. This is often present when transitions of care are necessary, such as from a planned homebirth to a hospital.

Ray Rachlin of Refuge Midwifery, Dr Abby Dennis, & Maggie share their personal experiences navigating these transfers and how we can acknowledge challenges while continuing to center the birthing person’s autonomy.

Read the bios for this week’s panel from our podcast core over here.

Hospital transfers are a necessary and expected part of thriving homebirth care models. Recognizing this and the unpredictability of birth that will sometimes necessitate a change in plans can prepare us to view a homebirth transfer as a variation of normal rather than a fraught situation to be avoided at all costs.

Our biases around homebirth transfers to hospital are often reinforced by negative experiences. Many hospital-based birth professionals are only familiar with homebirth in the context of when things go awry and a transfer is needed, which reinforces a belief that homebirth is unsafe and needlessly risky. Similarly, when community midwives & birthworkers do not have relationships with hospital-based providers outside of the transfer environment there is limited time to establish shared beliefs

Join Abby, Ray, & Maggie this week as we explore:

~When & how to transfer to preserve vaginal birth

~Routine vs emergent transfers

~Adversarial relationships between homebirth & hospital providers

~System challenges in the US that preclude collaborative relationships

~Establishing mutual trust & respect to avoid care delays

~Promoting physical, mental, & emotional safety during a transfer

For more reading about homebirth transfers & safety, check out these resources:

Best Practice Guidelines: Transfer from Planned Home Birth to Hospital

Transfer from Planned Home Birth to Hospital:
Improving Interprofessional Collaboration

Transfer to hospital in planned home births: a systematic review

Outcomes of care for 16,924 planned home births in the United States: the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project, 2004 to 2009