natural birth
"If left alone in labor, the body of a woman
produces most easily the baby that is not interfered with...
If left alone, just courage and patience are required."
~ Grantly Dick-Read, Childbirth without Fear: The Principles and Practice of
Natural Childbirth
To ensure a safer easier birth for the mother and baby,
chiropractic care is essential. More and more birth practitioners are recommending
that their mothers receive chiropractic care throughout pregnancy. Find
a Doctor in your area who offers specific adjusments for pregnancy.
More on Birthing and the Chiropractic Perspective:
Chiropractic
Care in Pregnancy for Safer, Easier Births
Midwifery
and Chiropractic
The
Importance of a Non-Invasive Birth
Birth - What are
the Philosophical Options?
Visit our research section
on birth trauma
Holistic Midwifery Care for Mother and Baby
A Licensed Midwife's Homepage with many links about safe and gentle birth options. http://www.gentlebirth.org/ronnie/
Midwife Archives
Information about all aspects of pregnancy, birth and well-woman care from
a midwifery perspective. http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/index.html
Perspectives on Normal Birth by Ronnie Falcao
How a birth center achieves a cesarean rate of less than 1% without compromising
the well-being of the mother or baby. www.gentlebirth.org/ronnie/birthrf.html
Home birth is safer than you've been led
to believe:
1- Homebirth Safety
and Benefits
Information about the superior safety and intangible benefits of homebirth,
with links to corroborating resources.
Keywords: birth, home birth, homebirth, childbirth, midwifery, midwife, pregnant,
pregnancy, baby, babies, safety, benefits, advantages
2- Is
Homebirth for You? 6 Myths About Childbirth Exposed
A pamphlet discussing why homebirth is safer than hospital birth for most healthy
women. An online version of the booklet produced by Friends of Homebirth.
Keywords: NAPSAC, Stewart, Friends of Homebirth, home birth, homebirth, birth,
midwife, midwifery, pregnant, pregnancy, baby, babies, safety, benefits, advantages
2- Home Birth Reference Site
3 - There's
no place like home
3- The
Home Birth Choice
4- Home
Birth International
5- Why
Homebirth?
Research Articles Supporting Home Birth
The Safety of Home Birth:
Home birth can be a safe option for 90% of mothers, with appropriate prenatal
care and attendant personnel. It makes both financial sense and medical sense
for state laws to permit home birth attended by midwives, for insurers to reimburse
for home delivery, and for hospitals and obstetricians to provide medical back-up.
Visit this site for current research articles supporting home birth:
http://www.changesurfer.com/Hlth/homebirth.html
Landmark Study Shows Giving Birth at Home
is Safe
" Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional
midwives: large prospective study in North America." Kenneth
C Johnson, senior epidemiologist, Betty-Anne Daviss, project
manager. BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June).
Published online at http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416?ehom
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 latest issue of 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.
Canadian researchers Kenneth Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss studied over 5,400
low-risk pregnant women planning to birth at home in the United States and
Canada in 2000. The researchers analyzed outcomes and medical interventions
for planned home births, including transports to hospital care, and compared
these results to the outcomes of 3,360,868 low risk hospital births. According
to the British Medical Journal press release, they found:
. 88% of the women
birthed at home, with 12% transferring to hospital.
. Planned home birth carried a rate of 1.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, a
rate "consistent with most North American studies of intended births out of hospital
and low risk hospital births."
. There were no maternal deaths.
. Medical intervention rates of planned home births were dramatically lower than
of planned hospital births, including: episiotomy rate of 2.1% (33.0% in hospital),
cesarean section rate of 3.7% (19.0% in hospital), forceps rate of 1.0% (2.2%
in hospital), induction rate of 9.6% (21% in hospital), and electronic fetal
monitoring rate of 9.6% (84.3% in hospital).
. 97% of over 500 participants who were randomly contacted to validate birth
outcomes reported that they were extremely or very satisfied with the care they
received.
"SAFETY OF ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO CHILDBIRTH"
"Under no circumstances do the California data for 1989 and 1990 allow the obstetric
profession to uphold the claim that for the large majority of low-risk women
hospital birth is "safer" with respect to perinatal mortality. Our data also
suggest that even for the high-risk levels of our Study Population the natural
approach (including transfers) produces the same perinatal mortality outcomes
as the obstetric approach."
"Given no differences in perinatal mortality it must be noted that the natural
approach shows significant advantages with respect to lower maternity care cost
as well as reduced mortality and morbidity from unnecessary cesareans and other
obstetric interventions, and significant benefits from avoiding negative long-term
consequences from unnecessary obstetric interventions and procedures. These advantages
of the natural approach are of such a large order of magnitude as to raise serious
doubts concerning the appropriateness of conventional "obstetric" treatment for
low-risk childbirth."
Read the article
Natural
Labor, Natural Birth:
1- There are natural non-invasive methods to manage pain in labor. The
Bonapace Program offers a vialble program and has the substantiating
research to support it.
2- Accupressure in
labor is another natural way to address pain.
3- Comfort
measures for labor
4- The
Instinct of Birth
5- Natural
Birthing Links in Mothering
Visit our Links page for even more
resources.
Support in Labor is Essential:
1- Childbirth.org
on Doulas
2- Doulas of North America
Mothers Report that Home Birth has Spiritual Quality
Why do women choose home birth over hospital delivery? To answer this question,
Pamela Klassen, a researcher at the University of Toronto, interviewed 45 mothers
who had given birth at home. Although the women were from diverse ethnic and
religious backgrounds, they agreed that home birth was a "spiritual experience."
"I was surprised at these results," explains Klassen, "because you would stereotypically
assume that these mothers would be ideologically opposed to each other ranging
as they were from feminists to Orthodox Jews to conservative Pentecostal women.
Yet they ended up having similar understandings of the significance a home birth
could have on their spiritual beliefs, their family relationships and their identity
as women."
University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Religion - August 2, 1999.
Visit our extensive links page