Advantages for the Mother & Baby

• The midwife whom the mother has gotten to know well is the attendant at the birth.  Continuity of care is an important part of homebirth because the mother does not have the stress of having an attendant she does not know.
• The woman is in charge of who is present at the birth and can ensure that only people she is comfortable with are present.
• She is not subject to routine procedures such as IVs and electric fetal monitoring but is seen as an individual.  Her needs and desires are not sacrificed to protocols.
• She can eat, drink, and walk freely to facilitate the natural process.
• She is comfortable in her own surrounding and is able to labor and birth in any position that she chooses.
• She is much less likely to want pain medication because she feels safe and is well supported.
• There are more options for comfort measures at home such as massage, aromatherapy, herbal or homeopathic remedies, water, music, vocalizing (as loud as you want!), getting some private time in your own bedroom, and spiritual practices.
• Because of the mother’s greater control over her environment at home, she is much more likely to deliver without drugs, vacuum extraction, or cesarean.
• There is a decrease risk of infection in the home for both the mother and baby.
• There is no mother-baby separation, which reduces the chance of postpartum depression, increase the success of breastfeeding, enhances bonding, and is an essential part of attachment parenting.
• The environment is also more comfortable for the baby with dim lights and natural warmth from mother’s body instead of an artificial warmer.

Benefits for the Family

• Partners, family, and friends are welcome and can participate are much as they choose.
• Birth at home is a family event and becomes a continuum of the family life.
• Other children can be present at the birth.  This can increase sibling bonding.

Is Homebirth Safe?

Homebirth is not without risk.  However, hospital birth is not without risk either.   For healthy, low-risk women, homebirth is just as safe as hospital birth, if not safer.  In 2000, there were 27 other countries that enjoy better infant mortality rates than the U.S.  One thing the countries at the top of this list have in common is the use of homebirth midwifery as part of their standard of care.

There was a large study on the outcomes of homebirth that was recently published in the British Journal of Medicine.  The finding showed that homebirth was associated with fewer interventions and similiar mortality rates to that of low-risk hospital births.

 Click Here to view the study in its entirety.

Please view my Links page for other informative resources on the benefits and safety of homebirth.

See the difference for yourself...

Medical management of birth in a hospital 

Versus

Midwifery care at birth in the home