Home Birth - Getting Back to Our Roots
History | Advantages | Guidelines
Until 1900, home birth was the typical birth setting for Americans. In addition, more than 90% of people worldwide were born at home!
Hospital births did not rise in popularity until the 1920s, when use of motorized vehicles and medical promotion rose. They gained in popularity in that one physician could attend to many patients at a single location while minimizing his costs by treating more patients at once.
A major factor in the decrease of home birth at this time was due to the physician's movement to eliminate midwives, their largest source of competition in the growing market of prenatal care and childbirth. Between 1930-1960, physician groups legislated against the practice of midwifery, effectively changing laws across many states to restrict or prohibit their practice.
One of the prominent misconceptions about homebirth is that its practice is unsafe. Logic alone dictates that this is untrue. If most of the Americans alive today were born at home and lived to tell about it, then homebirth must be a viable option.
For those more data-centered individuals, there have been numerous studies conducted over the past 40 years to compare the safety of homebirth as compared to hospital birth.
The consensus from the research shows that homebirth is as safe or safer than hospital birth for low-risk women with a skilled birth attendant.
One such study conducted by Lewis Mehl compared the birth outcomes of 2,092 women. His results showed that the incidence of interventions such as forceps, manual placental traction, episiotomy, laceration, and birth injuries was significantly higher for a hospital birth than for a homebirth.
If you are considering birthing at home, do your research. Find an experienced midwife or other birth companion. Ask them for a list of references or if you may contact other families whose births they've attended. If so, ask the family about their experience and satisfaction with that attendant. Be sure to select an attendant with whom your whole family is comfortable.
Additional information on the pertinent aspects of homebirths can be found in the following pages:
Guidelines for Home Child Birth
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