Homebirth With a Midwife
Whether your pregnancy is a surprise, or a well-planned journey, the first thing that you will have to decide is who to work with throughout your pregnancy and labor. Your pregnancy is the time to examine and weigh all your options in a way you may never have before. You should align yourself from the very beginning, with someone who shares your beliefs.
When making decisions about any healthcare provider you should ask extensive and provocative questions about the practice, ask for statistics, and also references. I would suggest that you do more than simply opening your insurance provider book, and make an appointment with the most local practitioner. Think about your belief system. What do you believe about your body? What do you believe about the medical system, and how you fit in with it? Are you looking for someone to take care of you, or are you looking for someone to be a partner in your healthcare? Do you believe that pregnancy is a natural process, or a scary, dangerous event? Where do you feel safest?
In this era of great technology, homebirth as a birth option is all too often overlooked. However, there are well-conducted studies that show that healthy women having planned homebirths with trained midwives have as good, and in some cases, better outcomes than hospital births. In 2005, the BMJ contained a large, prospective study, which looked at the outcomes of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) who attended planned homebirths with low risk women. The conclusion: Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.
Beyond safety issues, women feel (hopefully) safe and loved in their own homes. Many women choose homebirth because at home, only your trusted midwife, possibly her assistant, and whatever family or loved ones that have been invited are present at your homebirth.
When a woman feels safe, and supported by loved ones, her experience of pain is diminished due to the release of endorphins that work synergistically with oxytocin produced by her own body. When under stress the release of adrenalin inhibits the excretion of oxytocin, thereby slowing her labor, causing more pain, and delaying progress that then in turn, often leads to more interventions.
Another misconception of homebirth, is that your home is dirty and filled with germs. Actually, the opposite is true. In your own home, your body and your baby are used to your own germs, and you are the only one using your own bathroom.
The rate of interventions is much lower at home as well. A woman has the ability, and in fact is encouraged to eat, drink, and move around freely and labor and birth in whatever position that she feels most comfortable. The labor therefore progresses well on its own, with little or no intervention. At home there is also less hemorrhage, less perineal lacerations, less episiotomies, less cesearean sections, and greater maternal satisfaction with homebirth.
Perhaps most importantly, when a woman gives birth at home, there is an awareness that birth is sacred and that the mother and baby bond is sacred. The baby is placed on the mother, there is no immediate cord clamping, nursing is encouraged and assisted. At no point is the baby taken from the mother, and everything that needs to be done can be done while mother and baby are together. This particular mother and baby are the only ones being cared for; they receive the time and attention of a skilled midwife who is not distracted by other cases that she is working on. A relationship has been built through out the pregnancy that is built on education, trust, and professionalism.
If you are considering having a homebirth, a well-trained midwife is very important. Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) mentioned earlier, are midwives specifically trained in out-of-hospital birth. They provide homebirth services, and complete prenatal and postpartum care. They have passed competency exams, and are certified through the North American Registry of Midwives.
