Benefits of a Homebirth

Having the baby in your home? Who does such things?  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 quite.  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.

This practice of having your baby at home is 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 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 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 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 do not know that pain medications, although they do help with pain, actually makes the labor slow down.  This in reality causes the pain and the labor to last much longer.

Second, midwifery techniques in reality reduce the need for forceps or other intrusive devices during 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 that happen in labor were because it was thought that a 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 just 3 of the benefits of having a natural birth at home.  There are a lot more benefits, but I am positive most women who are pregnant would say 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.

• July 7, 2009 -- How to have a waterbirth delivery (0)
• June 24, 2009 -- Choosing a midwife safely (0)
• June 30, 2009 -- How to Have a Joyous Delivery (0)
• June 6, 2009 -- Labor and Delivery with Midwifery (0)