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 large group of women who are discovering the benefts of having a baby at home, or homebirth as it is sometimes called.
The practice of homebirths is usually called midwifery. Although not doctors or nurses, people in this line of work called 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 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 contrasted with the medical model which believes that pregnancy and delivery should be accompanied by medicine to assist and improve the situation.
That out of the way, lets take a look at why women are having their 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 don’t realize that the use of pain medications although seemingly helpful in regards to pain, actually slows the labor down. This actually creates more pain and makes the labor last 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, is it reduces the possibility of a cesarean delivery. 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. 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 many more, but I am sure most women in pregnancy would agree 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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