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Category: Risk assessments

  1. Do Midwives Really Cut Open Birth Pools at Home Births?

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    I have lost count of the number of times I have opened my Facebook app, scrolled my news feed and discovered a post in a homebirth support group along the lines of:

    "I've been told that if I pass out in the pool then the midwife will cut the pool open with a knife in order to get to me. Is this true because it's really worrying me?"

    Sometimes it even has an extra spicy side dish of fat-discrimination by specifically referencing the BMI of the mother-to-be or parent-to-be.

    That's not to say it's a daily occurrence. But it happens often enough that I stopped bothering to count how many times quite a while ago.

    I will preface this post, which is destined to be rather ranty, with the statement that I have never heard a story of a midwife actually doing this. That being said, if it has never happened and, as I am about to illustrate, shouldn't ever happen, then why on earth is it still being brought up during homebirth preparation appointments as though it is a real thing?!