To Contact “A Mother’s Nature”:

  Phone: 407/699-7897—Birth Options

Fax: 407/699-7897

Email: midwife1@earthlink.net

Safety of Home Birth

      In most cultures throughout history, women have given birth at home.  Currently, the majority of women around the world continue to deliver their babies in non-hospital settings.  This is partly due to culture and a desire to be in a familiar, safe environment.  In many areas birth is viewed as an integral part of family life.

      Study after study shows that medical interventions cause complications.  Of the six leading causes of pregnancy-related death—hemorrhage, anesthesia, infection—are often the result of invasive obstetric interventions.  The 2002 statistics are reported and clearly show maternal mortality is on the increase—not a decrease—due to these interventions and has not decreased in the US in more than 25 years!!  Mothering Magazine Issue 121 Nov/Dec 2003 editorial states our imprinting here in the US revolves around pain medication and not our unborn children.  What about the baby?

      Natural childbirth is the best choice because it is the safest choice.  It is safest because, by definition, it involves fewer medical interventions, and it these interventions that contribute to at least 50 percent of maternal deaths.                               Even though studies consistently show that midwives use fewer interventions and have better birth outcomes than doctors, most women in the US can’t easily find one.  The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology remain unsupportive of homebirth and consistently attempt to undermine the statistics.  A recent study produced in the State of Washington by ACOG is yet another example of information taken out of context to prove their point.  Many midwives around the US joined in defense of the inaccuracy of this study, yet due to it’s source, was published including statistics of births that were not “planned homebirths” and without a skilled attendant.  Could it be that one of the top money makers in medicine today is obstetrics.  Note that these variations in care are directly related to increasing medical and legal pressure on doctors.

      We believe erroneously that we have a right to a pain-free birth.  We are so accustomed to taking drugs for our pain that we do not recognize that pain is an ally during birth.  Pain medication during labor puts the baby at unnecessary risk, and there is no medical evidence to support its use in normal birth.  Perhaps most important, we can handle the pain.  We are designed to handle it.

      Bottom line folks, we live in a magical time where we have the ancient wisdom and modern technology.  Skilled midwives are trained, carry drugs to stop post partum hemorrhage and oxygen, and have much better birth outcomes for mothers and babies.  If we need the technology we can access the technology.  Most midwives have an 8 to 10% transfer rate and a 5 to 6% cesarean rate.  Not a 26.1% cesarean rate (2002 CDC release).  Trust your own body!