Should you have a Homebirth?
Having the baby in your home? Who would do such a thing? Didn’t that only happen back in the early days of our country when doctor’s had to go out to the prairie and deliver babies?
Not quite. There are a growing number of women who have discovered the benefits of having your baby at home, or a homebirth as it is commonly 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 the term most people are familiar with and means a person who helps during childbirth by providing support of the 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 contrasted with the medical model which believes that pregnancy and delivery should be accompanied by medicine to assist and improve the situation.
With that aside, lets look at why a lot of women are having babies at home rather than hospitals. 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 aren’t told that pain medications actually slows down the labor, even though it helps with the pain. This actually creates more pain and makes the labor last longer.
Second, midwifery techniques in reality reduce the need for forceps or other intrusive devices during delivery. The technique of letting the birth and delivery to occur naturally is what reduces the need to use those devices.
Third, the possiblity of c-section deliveries are actually reduced. Most cesareans are performed because during labor, somehow a consensus was made that a natural vaginal birth was not possible. Either it was the baby’s safety that was in mind or the mother’s safety. Well in all actuality that complication was caused because the natural process was not allowed to happen.
These were 3 benefits of having a homebirth naturally. There are a lot more benefits, but I am positive most women who are pregnant would say these are 3 huge benefits.
So even though some might call it strange to have a child at home, recent studies indicate that allowing a natural birth to happen is much safer for the mom 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.
Tags: homebirth, midwife, midwives, pregnancy
