Should you have a Homebirth?

Having your child in the 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.

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 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 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 aren’t told that pain medications actually slows down the labor, even though it helps with the pain.  This in reality causes the pain and the labor to last much 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 it was the baby’s safety that was in mind or the mother’s safety.  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 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 homebirth midwife in San Diego, this has proven to be the case time and time again.