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Many medical people feel that women selfishly choose homebirth by putting their own experience above the safety of the baby. This simply is not true - everyone wants a healthy mother and a healthy baby above all else. But couples who have their baby at home know that statistics bear out the safety of homebirth for low - risk mothers; they also recognize that there are many advantages for the baby as well as the mother and the entire family.
Advantages for the Baby
•Vaginal birth is much more likely at home (Cesarean rates range from 4-10% in most homebirth practices. With vaginal birth, babies experience less breathing difficulties.
• There is less likelihood of infection when the baby is at home with with the mother than in the hospital newborn nursery.
• The baby’s experience at birth can be recognized and made as gentle aspossible. Routine procedures such as deep suctioning, scrubbing the baby, separation from the mother, etc.are avoided.
• The baby is not separated from the mother. The mother-infant bond is never sacrificed for institutional procedures.
• Breast feeding is easier to establish when the baby can nurse on demand and not be given bottles.
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Advantages for the Mother
• She is not subjected to routine procedures such as electronic monitoring, IV’s, shave, prep, enema, or stirrups.
• She can eat and drink and walk freely to assist her body to work with nature.
• She will have continuity of care with the same attendants, increasing safety.
• She is more likely to be treated as an individual, rather than being sacrificed to protocols or statistical averages.
• She is much less likely to need pain killing drugs, forceps or a caesarean section when she has attendants who beeive that birth is a normal physiological function.
• She is comfortable in her own surroundings, relaxed and able to labor and deliver in the position she chooses.
• She has less chance of infection and episiotomy.
• Postpartum depression is less likely when there is no separation of mother and baby and the midwife relationship/support continues well after the birth.
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| Advantages for the Family
• Partners are in their own home, not “allowed” to be present, but participating as fully as they choose.
• Other children can be present as appropriate.
• The birth is an integral part of family life, helping with postpartum adjustment.
Disadvantages
• Requires a higher level of effort and responsibility.
• Often not supported by society of doctors.
• Access to some emergency equipment can be delayed and require transport .
Minimizing the Risks
Birth at home, like birth in the hospital, is not risk-free. You can minimize the risks by:
• Having good nutrition and adequate weight gain, can help in avoiding high blood pressure and other complications.
• Finding a midwife, who is skilled, confident and experienced in birth at home,
will assure good prenatal care.
• Informing yourselves through reading, classes, videos and other resources.
• Making sure that if you have a situation which makes you “statistically at risk’’ that you and your partner are well-informed and have taken adequate steps to minimize the chance of your becoming a statistic. For example, some physicians used to say that over 35 was “high-risk,” but studies show no greater incidence of complications with today’s well-nourished “older mothers” (you’re at high-risk of having a caesarean if you birth in the hospital, perhaps...)
• Having adequate support during labor and postpartum.
• Having an emergency back-up plan and numbers posted by the phone.
From “Homebirth as the Standard of Care” By Rahima Baldwin Dancy
Article copyright 2001 by Informed Homebirth, IHIBP@sbcglobal.net.
Used with permission. | |
| For more information on the safety of homebirth, click here. |
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