Having your baby at home?  Who would do such a thing? 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.

It is called midwifery the practice of having your baby at home.  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 aside, lets look at why a lot of women are having babies at home rather than hospitals.  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 don’t realize that the use of pain medications although seemingly helpful in regards to pain, actually slows the labor down.  This in reality causes the pain and the labor to last much longer.

Second, the techniques of midwifery actually reduces the likelihood of the need for forceps or other operative devices during delivery.  The process of naturally allowing the birh and delivery to occur is what causes the reduction of the need for those devices.

Third, cesarean delivery possbilities are reduced.  Most c-sections happen when during labor, it was thought that a natural birth process was not possible.  Either it was the baby’s safety that was in mind or the mother’s safety.  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 many more, but I am sure most women in pregnancy would agree 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.

Tagged as: Baby At Home, Birh, Births, C Sections, Childbirth, Forceps, Group Of Women, Having A Baby, Having Babies, Having Your Baby, homebirth, Homebirths, Labor And Delivery, Large Group, Likelihood, Medical Model, midwife, midwives, Nurses, Pain Medications, pregnancy, Pregnancy And Delivery