Having your baby at 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 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.  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 a midwife is usually not a nurse or doctor because in general a midwife generally believes that pregnancy and births are natural events and should be allowed to proceed naturally without drugs.  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 taken care of, lets examine why women are choosing to have babies at home.  What benefits are making women choose homebirths?

First, with the midwife’s continued presence, the labor time can actually be reduced.  Most women do not know that pain medications, although they do help with pain, actually makes the labor slow 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 naturally allowing the birh and delivery to occur is what causes the reduction of the need for 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.  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 a lot more benefits, but I am positive most women who are pregnant would say 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 over 300 births attended as a homebirth midwife in San Diego, this has proven to be the case time and time again.