Having the baby in your home? Who does such things? Didn’t that just happen when there weren’t many hospitals and doctor’s had to go to the home to deliver babies?
Not quite. There is a growing group of women who realize the benefits of a homebirth and having your baby at home.
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 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 a midwife is usually not a doctor or nurse is because the practice of having your baby at home, or midwifery is generally the belief that pregnancy and birth are natural normal events. This is in stark contrast with the medical model which relies on medicine to assist and improve the pregnancy and delivery.
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, 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 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, 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 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 were 3 benefits of having a homebirth naturally. 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 homebirth midwife in San Diego, this has proven to be the case time and time again.
