Should you have a Homebirth?
Having your baby at home? Who would do 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 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 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 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 in stark contrast with the medical model which relies on medicine to assist and improve the pregnancy and delivery.
With that taken care of, lets examine why women are choosing to have babies at home. What are the benefits that are causing women to have 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 in reality causes the pain and the labor to last much longer.
Second, midwifery techniques in reality reduce the need for forceps or other intrusive devices during delivery. The technique of letting the birth and delivery to occur naturally is what reduces the need to use those devices.
Third, is it reduces the possibility of a cesarean delivery. Most cesareans are performed because during labor, somehow a consensus was made that a natural vaginal birth was not possible. Either it was the baby’s safety that was in mind or the mother’s safety. Well in all actuality that complication was caused because the natural process was not allowed to happen.
These are 3 benefits when you have a natural homebirth. There are plenty more benefits, but most women would agree for pregnancy 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.
Midwifery Schools of Thought
Pregnancy and delivery; a source of joy and pain for the woman.Obviously joy is involved with the new baby, but if you ask most woman, they will also describe it was a source of unspeakable pain.
Well because there is that pain involved, two schools of thought have come about on how to deal with labor and delivery. I am going to offer some perspective on one particular school of thought that I have gained first hand experience with by being a homebirth midwife San Diego.
There is the medical model for delivering babies which is tied in with using drugs to kill the pain, and sometimes c -sections to finish the delivery.
While there is another model, which though not widely accepted, for those who believe in it and have experience it consider it much safer and natural for the woman.
That model is called the midwifery model.That is in obvious contrast with the usual medical model way of doing things.The medical model is where you rely heavily on medicine, while the midwifery model relies on the natural.Midwifery philosphy believes that pregnancy, labor, and delivery should happen as naturally as possible because it is a natural process.
This model is a profession practiced by midwives. Midwives San Diego are generally woman, who attend the birth, often times at the mother’s home. This midwife would then assist the woman in trying to get through labor as naturally as possible without medicine.
Contrary to most people’s opinion, when medicine is not used during labor, it allows the labor to proceed much faster without the use of drugs to slow the labor down.
The midwife as a profession does have a regulatory board that licenses, certifies, and oversees the individual.
Although often not a doctor or nurse, some midwives can be nurses.
Even though they are not formal doctors or nurses, they will have some medical equipment for emergencies like resuscitation devices and equipment for suturing.
So in regards to pregnancy and delivery this is what a midwife is and generally what midwifery is about.
Their goals are to allow the birth and delivery to happen as naturally as possible.This makes the likelihood of a c-section less likely. Doesn’t allow you to be subject to invasive hospital procedures such as episiotomys. Less medical management like breaking the water or using drugs to slow or speed up the pregnancy. And the best part of all that a woman will love, generally labor happens much quicker naturally.
Hopefully this was informative and helped you understand some of the benefits of midwifery and having a midwife there for your pregnancy.At the very minimum, maybe it gives you some other options to think about and look into. Remember this is first hand knowledge from a San Diego midwife.
