The Boston Journal
March 23, 2066
On January 17, 2065, Josh and Katie Starks conceived their first child. “I knew that she was about to ovulate,” Josh Starks recalls “so I lit some candles and put on some of our favorite music and, well, before long we had conceived a baby. It just felt very natural.” The Starks’ are one of a growing number of couples who are conceiving their babies at home. Citing the cold, impersonal atmosphere of hospitals and the high rate of interventions in medically managed conception, these couples are increasingly turning to home conceptions as a natural and more satisfying alternative.
There is an active debate about the safety of home conception. “It’s just irresponsible” states Dr. Brian Scerzeky, Chair of URO/GYN at Mass General Hospital in Boston. ”So many things can go wrong during conception: heart attacks, peno-vaginal disproportion, erectile failure, dyscoordinate spermatic action, failure-to-implant, ectopic pregnancy. Conception can be very dangerous. That’s what hospitals are for.”
The Starks’ dismiss those arguments. “People have been conceiving their babies at home in their own beds for thousand of years.” Josh says. “My own grandparents conceived all of their children at home. It was very normal back then. If it didn’t work so well, we wouldn’t all be here.”
Dave and Jen Silverman conceived their first baby in the hospital and are planning for a home conception with their next child. “Our first conception was a nightmare.” Dave explains “We knew we wanted to have a natural conception, we took natural conception classes, and we had a conception plan.” But when they arrived at the hospital with signs of ovulation, all of their careful preparation went out the window. “We started to work together to conceive,” recalls Dave “but the monitors that they strapped onto me and the constant checking of my erectile progression made it impossible to relax. I felt like a watched pot. We tried and tried for hours. Finally, we were under so much pressure from the doctor to complete the conception, we agreed to erectile stimulating drugs. It all went downhill from there. The drugs they gave me were too strong and the erection became excruciatingly painful. I agreed to an epidural because I couldn’t stand the pain and the epidural made my blood pressure drop. They ended up doing an emergency semen-extraction and artificially inseminating Jen. Everyone tells me that I should just feel happy that we have a healthy dad and a healthy baby. But I can’t help but feel like a failure, and like I missed out on what should have been an intimate, joyful experience.”
Dave’s partner Jen adds “It was a very scary experience to see Dave in pain like that. It didn’t seem like a normal part of the process. I’m a little nervous after what we went through before, but I’m hoping that a natural, home conception will be a more enjoyable experience next time.”
Bob and Wendy Judge disagree. “I can’t imagine conceiving a baby at home” says Wendy. “That’s crazy! Think of all the things that can go wrong! I would be terrified that my husband would have a heart attack or that the embryo wouldn’t implant properly. He could die, our baby could die. I don’t want to conceive a baby like some cavewoman. Modern medicine has made conception so much safer than it used to be. Why wouldn’t you want the safest possible conception?”
There are limited studies on the safety of home conception. One study of 2,483 couples in Sweden found that home conception for healthy, low-risk couples was just as safe as hospital conception, and the couples reported higher rates of satisfaction with their conception. But doctors continue to debate whether this study was too small to be meaningful. Dr. Wendy Moore, an epidemiologist at Riverview Medical Center in Hartford, CT explains “It isn’t possible to do the Gold Standard study. Couples are simply not going to allow themselves to be randomized into home conception or hospital conception. But the data that we do have suggests that this is a safe alternative for low risk couples.” Dr Moore cautions that home conception should not be considered when either partner suffers from a heart condition, is over the age of 35, where there is scarring of the fallopian tubes, impotence, impaired spermatic mobility, or when pre-conceptual evaluation of erectile and vaginal sizes suggests that peno-vaginal disproportion is likely. She adds, “But for healthy, low-risk couples, I believe home conception is a safe option.”
As for the Starks, on October 20th, Katie went into labor. Thrilled with their home conception, they chose a home birth as well. Katie labored all night long, leaning on Josh throughout her contractions. As the sun rose the following morning, Katie pushed out a beautiful baby girl. As Josh spoke about the birth, his eyes welled up with tears. “It was just so amazing and perfect. From conception to birth, we did it all at home, naturally. We couldn’t be happier.”