Having the baby in your home? Who does such things? Didn't that only happen back in the early days of our country when doctor's had to go out to the prairie and 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.
The practice of homebirths is usually called midwifery. Although usually not nurses or doctors, the people who are in midwifery are professionally regulated.
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 are the reasons why women are choosing homebirths?
First, with the midwife's continued presence, the labor time can actually 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 techniques in reality reduce the need for forceps or other intrusive devices during delivery. The process of allowing the birth and delivery to happen naturally is what reduces the need for those devices.
Third, the possiblity of c-section deliveries are actually reduced. {{{Most cesareans are performed because during labor, somehow a consensus was made that a natural vaginal birth was not possible|Most c-sections happen when during labor, it was thought that a natural birth process was not possible|Most cesareans that happen in labor were because it was thought that a vaginal birth 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 3 benefits when you have a natural homebirth. There are many more, but I am sure most women in pregnancy would agree these are 3 huge benefits.
So although, most might consider it strange to want to have a child at home, studies have shown that allowing the natural birth process to happen is safer for the mother and the baby. With mostly success stories abounding about homebirths, it's hard to argue that point.