Baby Tips 101

Having your child in the home? Who does such things? Wasn’t that just back in the western days when doctor’s had to deliver babies at home out on the prairie?

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 they are usually not doctors or nurses, people who are in this profession 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.

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 off, with the continued presence of the midwife, the length of labor can 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, is it reduces the possibility of a cesarean delivery.  Most c-sections happen when during labor, it was thought that a natural birth process 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 are just 3 of the benefits of having a natural birth at home.  There are plenty more benefits, but most women would agree for pregnancy 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.