Benefits of a Homebirth

Having your child in the home? Who would even think of 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 are a growing number of women who have discovered the benefits of having your baby at home, or a homebirth as it is commonly 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 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 the midwife generally isn’t a doctor or nurse is because having your baby at home, or midwifery, is usually the belief that pregnancy and delivery are natural events.  This is in stark contrast with the medical model which relies on medicine to assist and improve the pregnancy and delivery.

With that aside, lets look at why a lot of women are having babies at home rather than hospitals.  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 aren’t told that pain medications actually slows down the labor, even though it helps with the pain.  This really causes more pain and the labor actuallly lasts longer.

Second, midwifery practices actually causes a reduction in the need for forceps and other devices in a 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 because of the safety of the baby was in mind or the safety of the mother.  Well in all actuality that complication was caused because the natural process was not 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.