Homebirth risks and benefits

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Homebirth risks and benefits

Go to a delivery room at a hospital or birthing center and you’ll find a large amount of equipment and supplies that are suppose to provide the safest environment for a mother to give birth to her baby. A typical home may not look as safe for mom and baby. A hospital is the perfect place for high-risk deliveries. A home is the perfect place for normal deliveries. Most complications can be managed at a home birth. The statistics for perinatal (on and after 28 weeks gestation) mortality and maternal mortality may surprise you.

When comparing the safety of a hospital and non-hospital birth it is important to note that the comparison is with planned home birth statistics. The unplanned home birth or accidental births outside a hospital (like in a car on the way to the hospital) are not included.

So what are the homebirth risks? For a healthy woman with no medical conditions that would put her at risk, both baby and mother are safer at home! At home, a mother and baby have a lower risk of unnecessary medical intervention, complications, infections, death, and even postpartum depression for the mom, than at the hospital.

There are several factors that contribute the safety of mother and baby at a home birth.
• The midwife has only one woman and one baby to focus on, so they receive the care and monitoring needed for a safe delivery.
• The non-medical interventions to manage things like a long labor or failure to progress don’t carry risks.
• A woman is usually more relaxed in her home around people she chooses to be with her.
• When a woman chooses a homebirth, she is often more conscientious regarding diet and exercise.

The department of health and human services would like to see the cesarean rate around 15%. The actuality is that it is between 22% and 26% for women who elect to have a hospital birth. For a homebirth, approximately 1% to 5% of the women will have a cesarean birth. Maternal death risks increase with cesarean births. For a healthy mother and baby, here is no reason to risk the complications of surgery.

The perinatal mortality rate for hospital births are 9-10 babies for every 1,000 deliveries. With a homebirth, the mortality rate is 3-4 babies per 1,000 deliveries.

For a healthy woman and baby, a homebirth reduces the risks of complications of giving birth.