Should you have a Homebirth?
Having the baby in your home? Who does such things? Didn’t that just happen when there weren’t many hospitals and doctor’s had to go to the home to deliver babies?
Not so. 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.
It is called midwifery the practice of having your baby at home. 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 a midwife is usually not a nurse or doctor because in general a midwife generally believes that pregnancy and births are natural events and should be allowed to proceed naturally without drugs. 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 benefits are making women choose homebirths?
First, when you have a midwife present, this can cause the time of labor to 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 techniques in reality reduce the need for forceps or other intrusive devices during delivery. The process of naturally allowing the birh and delivery to occur is what causes the reduction of the need for those devices.
Third, the possiblity of c-section deliveries are actually reduced. Most c-sections happen when during labor, it was thought that a natural birth process 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 were 3 benefits of having a homebirth naturally. There are many more, but I am sure most women in pregnancy would agree 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 San Diego midwife, this has proven to be the case time and time again.
