lonely and desperate

Having the baby in your 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 so.  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 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 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 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 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 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 process of allowing the birth and delivery to happen naturally is what reduces the need for those devices.

Third, cesarean delivery possbilities are reduced.  Most cesareans are performed because during labor, somehow a consensus was made that a natural vaginal birth 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 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.

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