Should you have a Homebirth?

Friday, July 3rd, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Having your child in the home? Who would even think of 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 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.

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 the term most people are familiar with and means a person who helps during childbirth by providing support of the 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 aside, lets look at why a lot of women are having babies at home rather than hospitals.  What are the benefits that are causing women to have 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 really causes more pain and the labor actuallly lasts 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, 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 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 3 benefits when you have a natural homebirth.  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.

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