Homebirth: What Are the Issues?

by Sara Wickham, RM, BA(Hons)

© 1999 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Editor's note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 50, Summer 1999.]

There is no shortage of evidence to support the fact that homebirth is safe, satisfying and empowering for women and their families. It is also a much-neglected option for childbearing women in Western society today. This article seeks to discuss modern-day attitudes about birth and present the arguments for midwifery care and homebirth in an accessible format.

It must be stressed that different caregivers have different philosophies in relation to birth. These philosophies are generally referred to as the "midwifery" and "medical" models, although it is not accurate to say that all doctors believe in the medical model and all midwives in the midwifery model. The medical model sees childbirth as inherently dangerous and suggests that all women should undergo routine interventions to ensure safety and give birth in hospital, and the midwifery model uses a more holistic approach and assesses women on an individual basis—a process which often enables women to give birth in their own homes. Although the medical model has been the dominant model of birth in our society for a number of years, researchers in all fields are now showing the midwifery model to be more accurate in the way it sees birth.

Many women approach a "medical model" practitioner for care during their pregnancy, although this is not necessarily the best option. While obstetricians and hospitals have a part to play in the care of women with serious medical conditions or who develop a problem during pregnancy or labour, research shows that the vast majority of women would be better served by choosing a midwife for their care. Equally, this majority of women would also be well advised to consider homebirth as an option because of its many advantages over hospital care. Some of the advantages of homebirth with a midwife are cited below.

Women Experience Less Pain at Home

It is well understood that sensations of pain in labour are regulated by hormones released by the woman’s body. During labour, oxytocin—the hormone which causes contractions and helps the baby be born—works in harmony with endorphins—the body’s own pain relieving hormone. During a homebirth, the woman’s body will release these hormones according to her needs and she will usually cope well with the sensations of labour.

When a woman attempts to give birth in another environment such as a hospital, however, this process may not work as well. Even if a woman feels rationally that hospitals are "safer" places in which to give birth, her subconscious mind knows that this is not the case, and she feels insecure. This causes her body to secrete the hormone adrenaline, which causes the levels of both oxytocin and endorphins to drop. She experiences far more pain than she would in her own home, and this has several other effects on her labour which are described below.

Women Experience Lower Levels of Intervention at Home

There are two main reasons that women experience lower levels of intervention at home. The first concerns the hormones described above. In a hospital environment, women often produce the hormone adrenaline in response to subconscious or conscious fear. This inhibits the release of the hormone oxytocin, and labour may well slow down. Although this slowing of labour is a natural safety mechanism designed to let the woman know she needs to find another environment, it is interpreted by many medical professionals as "failure (of her body) to progress." Rather than suggesting that the woman talk about her fears or find a different environment, they will turn instead to drugs to "speed up" the labour. This drug (usually Pitocin or Syntocinon) can cause distress in the baby, among other effects, and often itself leads to a "cascade of intervention" which may result in an instrumental delivery or a cesarean.

The second reason is that hospitals are systems which need to run efficiently. They need to have procedures in place for workers to follow so that chaos does not ensue! Unfortunately, this often means that hospitals have policies where a certain number of interventions are carried out on all women who choose to give birth there. Often there is no evidence to support these interventions, and many of them (e.g. electronic fetal monitoring) are known to be harmful when used on a routine basis. Every intervention is useful to a small number of women when used appropriately, but when applied to all women, they often cause far more harm than good. Women's choices are not sought and it is often difficult for staff to offer individualized care, because they feel restricted by the "hospital policy."

Women Have More Autonomy at Home

Another major difference between giving birth in your own environment or in someone else’s is this: in your own home you are "in charge." You would not feel you needed to ask permission to make a drink in your own home or visit the bathroom, yet that is exactly the way many women feel in hospital. And the effects of feeling as if they need to ask permission to do everyday things can lead to women feeling they are not in control. This may then have an impact on a woman’s labour, because labour is a time when women need to feel very strong and powerful within their own bodies, not as if they were small children who needed to ask mommy to take them to pee!

Eating and drinking is another important aspect of this. In your own home, you are free to eat and drink whatever you feel like. Although women often do not feel like eating in strong labour, the choice is there. Many hospitals still refuse women food and drink in labour, even though all the research evidence shows that this restriction is harmful rather than beneficial. Consequently, women become dehydrated and have low energy levels at a time when they need lots of energy. Hospital staff may provide an IV drip to replace fluids but this is not ideal—it limits a woman’s movement and adds to the feeling that she is "sick" rather than experiencing a perfectly normal event.

Other Risks of Hospital Birth

A recent article in the journal of the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services cites a number of other risks of hospital births. These are summarised in the following list:

• Midwives or nurses may be looking after more than one woman in labour and individual women are not able to receive the support they need. This can also mean they are more likely to be "tied" to fetal monitors rather than having the midwife or nurse listen to the baby’s heartbeat intermittently.
• Hospital birth deprives the woman of contact with her family and friends. Being with other support people, particularly female relatives or friends, has been shown to have a very positive effect on labour and birth.
• Continuity of care is rare in hospitals—although you would have the same midwives throughout a homebirth, shift changes in hospitals mean you may see a large number of carers during your birth. Some women report that as soon as they have built a rapport or relationship with one carer, she goes off duty and they have to "start all over." "Knowing your midwife" has been shown to have very beneficial effects on labour.
• Levels of medical staff may also be low. It is a common fallacy that being in hospital is safer "if things go wrong." In fact, as long as you are not a huge distance from a hospital, you may well be treated more quickly if you are transported from a homebirth than if you were in hospital in the first place! The sort of emergencies that need truly immediate action are extremely rare and are almost always preceded by signs that your midwives will pick up and act upon.
• In hospital, decisions about your labour will sometimes be made by very junior medical staff. (You rarely have a choice about which staff cares for you in hospital.) These people may have little experience in birth and certainly far less than midwives who specialise in this area. They are also unlikely to trust that your body knows what it is doing!
• Hospital and medical care, as discussed above, takes place in the context of a philosophy where staff are "looking for problems" rather than ensuring that things are progressing normally. This seemingly small difference actually makes a big difference in the approach that different carers take to the woman and her labour and birth. Would you rather have a carer who trusts that your body knows what it is doing and either reassures you that all is going well or helps you if there are any problems, or a carer who is always checking to make sure that your body is "working" while at the same time doubting your ability to actually give birth? As before, not all hospital midwives or nurses take the latter attitude, but the environment of the hospital itself tends to perpetuate this philosophy.

Women Enjoy Increased Satisfaction with Homebirth

The proof of this pudding is in the eating, or the asking! Over 99 percent of women who have experienced both home and hospital birth will tell you that they would choose to have a homebirth in the future. But don’t take my word for it—ask some!

Arranging a Homebirth

If you are thinking of having your baby at home, talk to a midwife! She will be able to tell you what is available in your area and the kind of care she can offer you. She will also be able to help you make a realistic assessment of whether homebirth is right for you. In general, the only women who are truly better off in hospital are those with chronic medical problems, such as insulin-dependent diabetes, or those with a very small baby. But women need to be considered individually and their unique circumstances taken into account.

Remember that in our society there are many people who do not "trust birth" in all areas and professions, even midwifery. If you encounter opposition to your plans, then seek a second opinion. You may have to interview several caregivers before you find the one who is right for you. You may also want to seek support from other women who have made this choice.

And finally, remember that women have been having babies for millions of years—without the aid of hospitals or medical intervention. And if birth didn’t work, then we wouldn’t be here now! Women’s bodies are designed to have babies. Trust your body. Trust your baby. Trust birth.

Sara Wickham, MA, BA, RM is a direct-entry midwife in Maldon, England and a midwifery lecturer at Anglia Polytechnic University. She is the UK country contact and a contributing editor of Midwifery Today. Click here for more biographical information.