Home Birth

Aimee attends births at home with a variety of different midwives (some certified nurse midwives, and some direct-entry midwives). Aimee is able to serve in a home birth setting as either a doula, as the midwife’s assistant, or as the primary midwife under supervision, depending on the client’s desire. Home birth is a wonderful and safe option for many families. After having a pleasant-enough experience in the hospital with her first delivery, Aimee was delighted to birth her second and third babies at home. Please call to talk with Aimee about the possibility of experiencing the joy of bringing your baby into the world in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

BUT IS IT SAFE?

A study conducted by Dr. Lewis Mehl compared matched-populations of 2,092 homebirths and 2,092 hospital births. Midwives and family doctors attended the homebirths, and OB/GYNs and family doctors attended the hospital births. Within the hospital group, the fetal distress rate was six times higher, the incidence of maternal hemorrhage was three times higher, limp and unresponsive newborns arrived three times more often, and thirty permanent birth injuries were caused by doctors. For healthy low risk women, home birth is clearly THE SAFE option for birth venue.

WHAT ABOUT NON-NURSE MIDWIVES? The largest prospective study of planned home birth with a direct-entry midwife shows that homebirth is as safe as hospital birth for low risk women, yet carries a much lower rate of medical interventions, including Cesarean section.

This landmark study is reported in the British Medical Journal, June 2005. Planning a home birth attended by a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) offers as safe an outcome for low-risk mothers and babies as does hospital birth. This study is the largest yet of its kind. The researchers used prospective data on more than 5400 planned home births in North America attended by Certified Professional Midwives during the year 2000.

Read the full article at BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June.

"Unfortunately, the role of obstetrics has never been to help women give birth. There is a big difference between the medical discipline we call "obstetrics" and something completely different, the art of midwifery. If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them." ~ Michel Odent, MD

The Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother Friendly Care (Journal of Perinatal Education, Vol. 16, Supplement 1, Winter 2007), published in Lamaze International's peer‐reviewed professional journal states that the use of midwives is associated with:

• Increased length of prenatal visits, more education and counseling during prenatal care, and fewer hospital admissions.

• Less need for analgesia and/or epidural anesthesia and increased use of alternative pain relief methods, as well as more freedom of movement in labor and intake of food and drink.

• Decreased use of amniotomy (membrane rupture), IVs, electronic fetal monitoring; fewer inductions and augmentations of labor; and fewer injuries of the perineum (tissue between vagina and anus) as shown by fewer episiotomies, fewer rectal tears, and more intact perineums.

• Fewer cesareans overall, including fewer emergency cesareans for fetal distress or for inadequate progress in labor, and more vaginal births after cesareans (VBACs). Fewer infants born preterm, low birthweight or with complications such as birth injury or requiring resuscitation after birth, and more infants exclusively breastfeeding at 2‐4 months after birth.

aimee@birthblessings.com