Safety of a Homebirth
Having the baby in your home? Who would do such a thing? Wasn’t that just back in the western days when doctor’s had to deliver babies at home out on the prairie?
Not quite. There is a large group of women who are discovering the benefts of having a baby at home, or homebirth as it is sometimes called.
This practice of having your baby at home is called midwifery. Although they are usually not doctors or nurses, people who are in this profession are professionally regulated. I myself have seen the steady rise of homebirths through my practice as a San Diego certified midwife.
The people, generally women, who perform this line of work are called homebirth midwives. Midwives is a more common term that people are familiar with and means a person who attends childbirth and provides support during labor and delivery.
Now why the midwife generally isn’t a doctor or nurse is because having your baby at home, or midwifery, is usually the belief that pregnancy and delivery are natural events. This is in stark contrast with the medical model which relies on medicine to assist and improve the pregnancy and delivery.
With that taken care of, lets examine why women are choosing to have babies at home. What are the reasons why women are choosing homebirths?
First, with the midwife’s continued presence, the labor time can actually be reduced. Most women don’t realize that the use of pain medications although seemingly helpful in regards to pain, actually slows the labor down. This actually creates more pain and makes the labor last longer.
Second, midwifery practices actually causes a reduction in the need for forceps and other devices in a delivery. The process of allowing the birth and delivery to happen naturally is what reduces the need for those devices.
Third, cesarean delivery possbilities are reduced. Most cesareans are performed because during labor, somehow a consensus was made that a natural vaginal birth was not possible. Either the safety of the mother was in mind or the safety of the baby. Well in reality, complications were caused when the natural process was stopped and not allowed to continue.
These are just 3 of the benefits of having a natural birth at home. There are plenty more benefits, but most women would agree for pregnancy these are 3 huge benefits.
So although, most might consider it strange to want to have a child at home, studies have shown that allowing the natural birth process to happen is safer for the mother and the baby. With over 300 births attended as a homebirth midwife in San Diego, this has proven to be the case time and time again.
Written by woohooyeh on June 11th, 2009 with
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#1. June 12th, 2009, at 3:22 PM.
We had a homebirth and it was great, although havign the right midwife is crucial. My wife had no pain killers of any kind, she just got into the zone and did the business. It did take 33 hours though! No foreceps, no stirups, and no un natural positions. She wants to do it again.