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"All the time we wondered and wondered, who is this person coming, growing, turning, floating, swimming deep, deep inside."
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Safety of Home Birth and Midwifery
There is no shortage of evidence to support the fact that home birth is safe, satisfying and empowering for women and their families.
Safety is a priority in midwifery. Studies show that in the case of low-risk, normal healthy women having an uncomplicated pregnancy, birth at home attended by a licensed midwife is safer than a physician attended hospital birth. Midwives provide safe, effective maternity care.
Studies done comparing hospital and out-of-hospital births indicate fewer deaths, injuries and infections for homebirths supervised by a trained attendant than for hospital births.
Though technology can save lives in a crisis, the routine use of technology can interfere with the normal birth process. Understanding the potential danger in the overuse of childbirth technology, the World Health Organization has repeatedly implored the U.S. medical authorities to return to a midwife-based system of maternity care as one way to help reduce our scandalously high mortality rates.
Studies show that labor can be compromised by an unfamiliar environment. Discomfort and fear can actually increase the pain experienced in childbirth, while relaxation can diminish maternal stress, improve oxygen flow to the baby and facilitate labor. In her own home a laboring woman has the freedom to move about, wear what clothing she chooses, sip on energizing juices, continue caring for other children as she is able, relax in a warm tub of water, have the freedom to try different birthing positions, as she is supported by people who love and care for her. After the birth, the baby is never taken from its mother's side. The emotional bonding that takes place in the moments after birth between mother and child and between the baby and the entire family promotes well being, encourages breastfeeding and speeds recovery of the mother.
The continuous presence of a midwife during labor has been shown to reduce:
- The length of labor
- The need for pain medication
- The likelihood of forceps or other operative devices during delivery
- The possibility of cesarean delivery
Midwife Statistics
Midwives deliver over 70% of the babies born in countries which have lower infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates, lower cesarean section rates, and lower health care costs than those of the U.S.
Midwives attend 75% of births in Western European countries where infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates are much lower than the U.S.
In the Netherlands 70% of all births are attended by midwives, they have the lowest infant and maternal mortality and morbidity.
Currently the U.S. ranks 28th in maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.
Those countries that rely heavily on midwifery care have the best maternal and infant well being statistics.
The U.S. cesarean section rate is well over 30%, nationally. In some hospitals it exceeds 40%. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a cesarean section rate between 12-15% for an industrialized nation.
The medical model of cares approach to childbirth is based on medicines belief that every birth has a high potential for pathology, or in lay men’s terms childbirth is a disease which needs to be managed. On the other hand midwifery is rooted in the natural approach. Pregnancy and birth are considered fundamentally healthy processes which have many normal variations. The midwifery model of care views childbirth as a normal part of life, not a condition.