Having Home Births In History and Now

Home births are generally attended by a midwife who is an expert in taking care of a woman during her pregnancy and up to the time of labor and delivery. Some women choose to give birth without a medical professional in the home, which is known as an assisted home birth.

Some of the greatest benefits of having a home birth are that a woman has more control over her surroundings and can eat, sleep, and move around more than most hospital policies allow. Not only are those ideal for a woman who believes birth is a natural process, but medical interventions are kept to a minimum and the mother is likely to have a more pleasant birth experience during a home birth.

If something were to go wrong during a home birth, the mother would be transferred to a hospital. However, transfer rates range from 5 to 40 percent with an average of about 16 percent depending on the midwifery practice.

History of home births

Babies have been born at home for years and years, and even in the 1930s research shows that a home birth was safer than a hospital birth with almost 30 per 1,000 live births resulting in perinatal mortality compared to a hospital birth mortality rate of 50 per 1,000 live births. Until 1900, Americans were regularly born at the home, and women have given birth at home in most cultures throughout history. Hospitals didn’t become a common occurrence during childbirth until the 1920s, after the automobile was first introduced and physicians practiced in one place instead of coming to the home so that they could make better use of their time.

Are Home Births Safe?

The main question in modern society is whether a home birth is as safe as a birth in a hospital. Advances in science and technology today cause some doubts as to whether labor and delivery can be taken more seriously in a medical environment instead of giving birth the old-fashioned way in their own homes. The facts show, however, that medical science hasn’t been able to improve the human body or the way it is designed to work, and that our bodies function the way they are meant to function despite being fortunate of having the additional modern technologies.

While there are risks to giving birth at home, only a small percentage of women are transferred to a physician’s care at a hospital; most of the cases involve a stalled labor. In fact, the percentage of mothers who need ultrasounds and fetal monitors in order to have a successful and safe delivery are few and far between. Even with the most sophisticated and expensive maternity care system in the world, more than 10 babies in every 1,000 live births in 1989 died in the first few months of their life — more babies than in 20 other countries that were less developed than the United States. Many of those countries, like Denmark, Holland, and Sweden, use midwives instead of obstetricians as their primary caregivers during their pregnancies and births.

Among facts that support a home birth is that newborns born at hospitals had 17 times the amount of respiratory distress as babies born in the home.

Is it for you?

The majority of women who plan to give birth at home believe that, most of the time, pregnancy and childbirth are natural and normal instead of a potential crisis that deserves the attention of a surgeon. There is little to no risk in a home birth if the mother is having a low risk pregnancy, the home birth is planned, there is a trained birth assistant, and there is a hospital within a reasonable distance.

A home birth could be for you if you research a hospital and are dissatisfied with its Cesarean rates or other practices, or if you have confidence that your body was made to give birth naturally and you want a caregiver who supports those beliefs. Risk factors drop dramatically when a woman labors at home with fewer interventions, thus there is a far less risk of infection and other problems when giving birth at home.

Another bonus with home birth is that it costs far less than having a baby in a hospital — sometimes as much as two-thirds less. Some insurance providers, however, will not cover midwifery care or a birth in a birth center or at home.