Safety of a Homebirth
Having your baby at 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 so. There is a growing group of women who realize the benefits of a homebirth and having your baby at home.
The practice of homebirths is usually called midwifery. Although usually not nurses or doctors, the people who are in midwifery 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 contrasted with the medical model which believes that pregnancy and delivery should be accompanied by medicine to assist and improve the situation.
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 do not know that pain medications, although they do help with pain, actually makes the labor slow 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 it was the baby’s safety that was in mind or the mother’s safety. When in reality the complication was created because the natural birth process wasn’t allowed to happen.
These are 3 benefits when you have a natural homebirth. 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 San Diego midwife, this has proven to be the case time and time again.
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