Hello, and I hope I can help you today. Firstly, I am so sorry for your loss. I assume since you mentioned a coroner that the baby had a full autopsy and that the diagnosis you were given was accurate. I also assume your baby was not born in a hospital or supervised birthing center which usually have strict protocols for monitoring. In the US, planned home birth is not recommended by the American College of OBGYN because there is a significant risk of babies born not breathing, being injured during delivery, or both. You do not need to be strapped to a monitor, but it is recommended by most birthing center protocols to listen to the heartbeat at least once an hour in latent labor, every 20 minutes in active labor and while pushing AFTER EVERY CONTRACTION. In addition, according to the American guidelines for midwifery, any pregnancy that is over 41 weeks is also at additional risk and is not recommended for unmonitored labor. There is no way to know exactly when your baby started not getting enough oxygen nor whether or not his or her death could have been prevented without the baby s heart rate having been checked and recorded during labor. But I can say that fetal monitoring during labor has pretty much become the standard of care in most Western countries. The availability of emergency cesarean section in a hospital does offer the ability to try to intervene promptly in case of fetal heartbeat abnormalities. Whether or not this would have made a difference in your case there is no way to know, but as an obstetrician I am greatly saddened by your story and I strongly recommend you see an obstetrician and have a planned hospital delivery next time if you plan to have another child. Again I am so sorry for your loss and I hope this information was helpful. Best wishes, Dr. Brown