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 so. 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 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 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 off, with the continued presence of the midwife, the length of labor can 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, 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 because of the safety of the baby was in mind or the safety of the mother. 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 plenty more benefits, but most women would agree for pregnancy 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.