Consider a homebirth
When most people think of birth, they think of hospitals, but there are many places to give birth to babies. The mother's imagination is the limit. Once upon a time, home birth, not hospital birth was the standard. There are a lot of good reasons to consider a home birth supported by sound obstetric evidence.
Many people have written whole books on this topic (some of which I will link for further reading at the bottom of the article), so it will be hard to keep this concise! Please bare with me while I race through a few of my favourite reasons to consider a home birth.
Home is the centre of family life culturally and spiritually
This idea is really important and has been ignored for the most part until recently. In fact, obstetric medicine has been largely intent on removing cultural and spiritual practice from birth and turning the event into a medical procedure since its inception in the 18th century. However, families have found ways to celebrate the miraculous nature of birth in culturally appropriate ways since the beginning of time, from special ceremonies dedicating their new babies, to how they care for the recovery and nourishment of new mothers. In many ways, modern western culture has strayed from traditional family values much to its detriment. Perhaps returning birth to a loving environment where father and mother reign is the first step to healing our ailing culture.
Hospitals are for the sick and injured, a labouring mother is neither
Pretty self explanatory, right? Or you can go deeper on this topic, there are lots of levels.
Energetically, disease and death are in opposition to birth. Birth is a miracle of new life, a fresh start - not an illness.
Obstetricians are trained surgeons so thier very modality of working is to treat a condition with medicine or surgery, only pregnancy and delivery isn't a condition but a natural process the completes in the beginning of new life.
Hospitals sanitised with anti-biotics - life killing chemicals over and over and over setting the microbiome - the smallest organisms of life - out of balance. I won't go into more detail here because this is a whole field of science in itself, but you can read more about it here.
In the rare case of home births going wrong, transfers to hospital are available and usually straightforward. Which brings me to the next point:
For low-risk mothers, planned home births are just as safe or safer than hospital births
For women who have no history of birth complications or medical conditions (e.g. placenta previa, preeclampsia, etc.) that place them at higher than normal risk during childbirth, there is no difference in the safety or results when attended by a professionally-trained midwife in the home compared to a hospital birth. In fact, planned home births are associated with reduced rates of obstetric interventions (like episiotomy, assisted delivery, etc) as well as reduced rates of adverse perinatal outcomes, such as severe perineal tearing, postpartum hemorrhaging, and more.
Babies born at home are also less likely to require resuscitation at birth or to experience meconium aspiration.
It's easy to have the whole family as witness
Many a father's proudest moment is holding his wife's hand while she pushes their baby into the world. My husband even caught or first baby. I've seen whole families - grandparents and siblings - gather round mum and baby to say how in awe they are. This ties in with my first point because "family" looks a little different culturally, but universally speaking, doing something together binds us with a feeling of belonging. And that is a great way to begin bonding with a new baby.
Or if you prefer, you can have more privacy
Not everyone wants and audience for birth, and if you thought my description of family gathering 'round was discomforting, imagine nurses and doctors coming and going without knocking or overhearing the screams of the neighbouring woman in the labour ward.
If you want, you can birth completely on your own. Some people even chose to freebirth. Find out about my freebirth here.
The point is that you have more control over how many people and even who attends your birth if you birth at home.
New parents have more control over how their newborn is cared for
From the golden hour, to vitamin K and vaccunes, to how to feed there are so many important first choices to be made for your baby. I can be hard to feel confident in the face of these important decisions when you are under pressure from medical professionals who are trained to follow a certain protocol. There is no right or wrong, only informed consent and refusal, but unsolicited judgements, withheld information, and coercion are rampant in hospital settings and can leave new parents feeling out of control and alienated from their babies as witnessed by the fact that 1 in 3 women experience some sort of trauma during childbirth.
When you birth at home you will be in your own space and likely more able to make decisions from a place of confidence. Medical professionals tend to respect the fact that they are guests in your home when attending a home birth.
To sum this up, I do particularly love a home birth when parents feel safe and well prepared to birth at home. It is heartwarming to see a family in their own little world. I wish that more low risk mothers would consider them as a way to start their baby's life in most welcoming and loving way and to build family bonds.
Further reading:
Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah Buckley https://sarahbuckley.com/gentle-birth-gentle-mothering/introduction/
Why Home birth Matters by Natalie Meddings https://shop.aims.org.uk/products/why-home-birth-matters
Children in the Church Today by Sr Magdalena
