Home Birth

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Numerous studies have been conducted on various facets of Home Birth, focusing on the levels of safety, benefits, risks and the significance of place in terms of comprehensive postpartum care at home. Despite a wealth of evidence supporting planned home birth as a safe option for women with low risk pregnancies, the setting remains controversial in most high resource countries. Birth is an event of great importance in family life; giving birth at home is a tradition in many parts of the world because of limited access to health care facilities. Although, pregnancy and delivery are, under healthy conditions, normal social and physiological processes, childbirth has become hospital centered in most developed countries. Views are particularly …show more content…

Today, with less than one percent of all children in America born outside of a hospital, a growing movement is reversing that trend, and more women are opting to have children at home. One of the keys to a successful home birth experience is the hiring of a midwife. The increasing number of home births comes in a time when modern medicine is reporting scientific facts surrounding the reduction of the number of infant deaths. A study published in 2014; tracking the safety of home birth in the United States has taken a major step in the right direction, its authors believe. It found that outcomes among women who had planned, midwife-led home births were “excellent,” and that the women experienced relatively low rates of intervention. The study, published in the Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, looked at the home birth outcomes for roughly 17,000 women as recorded in the Midwives Alliance of North America data collection system between 2004 and 2009. It was found that, 89.1% gave birth at home, fewer than 5% required transfer for Pitocin or an epidural, and the VBAC success rate was 87% (94% of which were out of hospital births) (Cheyney, M., Bovbjerg, M., Everson, C., Gordon, W., Hannibal, D., Vedam, S., …show more content…

& Davis, B. A., 2005). The Birthplace cohort study, conducted by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), specific to England compares home birth preparation with planning for a hospital birth, as well as comparing the use a ‘midwifery unit’ or birth center with planning a hospital birth. The study found that women planning a home birth were more likely than women planning for birth in other settings to have a ‘normal’ birth. In this context, normal birth is defined as labor that starts spontaneously without induction, progresses without the use of an epidural, and the baby is born without assistance from forceps nor the need for an unplanned caesarean. Birthplace results show 88% of planned home births were ‘normal births’ compared to fewer than 60% of planned obstetric unit births. Similarly, In the United States, Planned out of hospital births attended by midwives reduce the risk of medical interventions by allowing the woman freedom to move and respond to her body. In addition, cesarean rates for planned out of hospital births were 3.7% , in comparison to the national average, which is around 30% (Wagner, 2006). Shorter labors and a reduced use of analgesia were found to be associated with continuous labor support as opposed to intermittent support found in hospitals

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