By Vicki Elson, MA, CCE, CD www.birth-media.com Feel free to make copies and share with credit!
There’s been a lot of press lately about the Australian home birth advocate who suffered a heart attack during labor at home, was rushed to the hospital, and died the next day. This story is extremely distressing, but there’s no evidence that she took any greater risk than a mother planning a hospital birth – mothers sometimes die in hospitals too. Thankfully, in places where good prenatal care and skilled birth attendants are available, both are rare.
There’s also a statistic circulating about home birth “tripling”the neonatal death rate. The study cited has been criticized for faulty methodology, and those who quote it have been criticized for putting an inappropriate spin on the data. Here’s an article by Andrew J. Vickers, PhD, explaining some of the problems: “Home Birth Triples the Neonatal Death Rate:”Attention-Grabbing No Doubt, But Uninformative.”
With skilled care and appropriate backup available, home birth is safer than hospital birth in some ways. Babies are half as likely to be born pre-term or with low birth weight. There are fewer germs at home, fewer ways to throw a woman off her natural rhythms, and a lot fewer cesareans! Home birth is not something I preach, but for those who make a responsible, well-researched decision, I think it can be a gift beyond measure, setting the stage for parenthood in a profoundly gentle way.
Parenting decisions are often complicated by the lack of clear “right” answers. All parents should weigh risks and benefits of all the choices they have to make: place of birth, epidural or no, baby vaccine schedules, circumcision, where the kid goes to junior high…Good luck!