Giving Birth At Home May Be Safer
Bryan Nash | Sep 21, 2012 | Comments 2 |
For the average, low-risk pregnancy, giving birth at home with a properly trained midwife standing by may be safer than a hospital birth. All the high-tech paraphernalia available in a hospital may actually put about-to-be-borns at risk. Doctors are too tempted to intervene in the birthing process. Those interventions can lead to unnecessary complications.
Research shows that in home births, there are up to 60 percent fewer interventions, fewer Cesarean sections and less-frequent epidurals. There are also up to 30 percent fewer complications like post-partum bleeding and severe perineal tears.
“If home birth is going be an attractive and safe option for most pregnant women, it has to be an integrated part of the health care system,” said lead author Ole Olsen. “In several Danish regions the home birth service has been very well organized for several years. This is not the case everywhere in the world.”
Researcher and midwifery lecturer Jette Aaroe Clausen adds this advice: “Patience is important if women want to avoid interference and give birth spontaneously. At home the temptation to make unnecessary interventions is reduced. The woman avoids, for example, routine electronic monitoring that may easily lead to further interventions in birth.”
Filed Under: Alternative Medicine • Easy Health Options News • Women’s Health
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I agree it would be safer to give birth at home. Some examples of dangers inherent in hospital births, in addition to risk of unnecessary Cesarean surgery, include:
– routine urinary catheterization which is often unnecessary and is a main cause of chronic urinary tract infections for the rest of a woman’s life
- modesty and dignity issues, where women are exposed to groups of people and exposed unnecessarily often without consent and against expressed wishes
- expressed wishes of the women are ignored
- women are often made to lie on their back with legs in stirrups even though this is not conducive to effective birthing
- medications are given, such as oxytocin to speed uterine contractions after birth, often for the convenience of staff and not for the welfare of the mother
- risk of contracting nosocomial infections
Home birth should be an integrated part of the health care system. Postpartum depression may in large part be due to the devastating effects of a traumatic hospital birthing experience.
All 4 of my children were born at home with certified nurse midwives in attendance. I attended birthing classes which included information on how to have a safe home birth. The weights of my babies ranged from 8 pounds to 11 1/2 pounds! I was able to walk freely, talk with my family freely, change positions freely, which made for faster, more personal births.
My then sister-in-law constantly ranted at me for doing this, she assured me my children would either die or be mentally disabled for life. She was, of course, completely wrong.
One baby had his cord wrapped around his neck when he came out. The midwife of course knew exactly what to do and he was fine. Each birth was different in length in complication and in intensity, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for a hospital experience ever!
Friends and others I talk to almost always say “you’re so brave to do that”, but I feel just the opposite. Going into a hospital to give birth you give away so much of YOUR freedom and birth decisions over to others. In addition I believe there’d be a much lower incidence of C-sections and induced labors etc. if more people would have CNM’s attend their home births.
We also had a pediatrician that would come to the house after the births to evaluate the babies etc.