The Decline Of Home Births

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

In America, most of the childbirth 's take place in a hospital. I am talking about 99 percent of delivery and off that percentage 34 percent is c-section. An article by Lisa Selin Davis states, “Well, it turns out that we’ve exported this model to the far corners of the world; in Japan, Korea and China, Western-style hospital births have all but replaced traditional home birth in the last few decades.” Meaning that these other countries mentioned above also practice hospital childbirth. Contrary to other where home birth is still an option. One example is Uganda;

The idea of childbirth has been viewed in three peculiar ways: a social natural occurrence, as a passage to an early death, and in present times a medical procedure needed when having children. In the seventieth and eighteenth century childbirth was seen as a social celebration conducted by midwives, while in the nineteenth century fear of death arose due to an increase of maternal mortality rates. This time period also served as a transition time between the elimination of the midwife and the emergence of the physician. The transition was due to attitude changes and knowledge understanding. During the twentieth century, medical knowledge expanded and thus the idea of childbirth was medicalized into a medical procedure needed to have healthy children. Childbirth once seen as a natural phenomenon was now an event that needed medical attention by health facilitators at institutions of health. The ideas around childbirth developed based on the knowledge, cultural setting, mortality rates, and professionals available at the time. Based on these ideas it is easy to see how social and behavioral aspects influenced childbirth throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, ninetieth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the communities’ views on childbirth were influenced by the development of public health infrastructure, public health policy advancement and how well public officials were able to disseminate information.

According to “Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America,” women and couples planning the birth of a child have decisions to make in variety of areas: place of birth, birth attendant(s), medication, preparedness classes, circumcision, breast feeding, etc. The “childbirth market” has responded to consumer concerns, so its’ important for prospective consumers to fully understand their options. With that being said, a woman has the choice to birth her child either at a hospital or at home. There are several differences when it comes to hospital births and non-hospital births.

Delivering a baby in the home and in the hospital both provide comfort to some, but homebirth offers decreased cost and hospital births offer more options. Some women have different birthing methods in mind when it comes to delivering a child. Some women feel that it is more convenient to stay home to deliver their child. Mothers-to-be will choose to have a hospital birth because they may feel safer or more secure knowing that if something is not right or if she has had complications, the doctor is there and she is in a hospital and everything will be okay.

After watching The Business of Being Born I was very shocked at the statistics stated throughout the link. One of the most shocking things from the link is that the United States is one of the less developed countries when it comes to childbirth and the health of the child. In Europe and Japan, midwives attend over seventy percent of the births, while in the United States, less than eight percent attend midwives. Maternity care in the United States is in crisis and midwives are trying to change the birthing process. Women in the United States are convinced that the vast majority of them do not know how to birth a child. One term that I thought was interesting was the term designer birth, which makes me directly think of women in New York City.

In the United States, midwives attend less than 8 percent of all births. In Europe and Japan, midwives attend over 70 percent (New Line Home Entertainment). People say that midwives are not needed in today’s world because of the abundance of nurses and doctors. This may be true, but the United States has the second worst infant mortality rate and one of the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world. Hospitals and other health professional places are tricking women into thinking that they need an induced labor, an epidural, or even a cesarean section, but they really do not. The documentary The Business of Being Born dives into the history of birthing in the United States, the labor process at a hospital, as well as the role of

The conflict over homebirth proved to be one of the most bitter between the medical profession and the women 's movement. “While no state forbade homebirth, Doctors who participated in homebirths by offering backups in emergencies were threatened with loss of hospital privileges and even their medical licenses.” (Leggitt) The overall argument was that it was not safe for women to be at home in labor, however women felt that they should have the choice to give birth at home or in a hospital setting. According to Freeze “Official medical positions on home birth emerged in the

It took quite a long time to come to the conclusion to have a home birth. My husband was more excited about the idea then I was at first and somehow he managed to convince me to go ahead with it. After interviewing three midwives, I had found the perfect person. You really need to search deep and mesh well with the midwife

The birthing experience has been described as an emotional life-altering moment for women. Women should be allowed the opportunity to make personal choices regarding medical interventions for their birth and delivery options. This paper examines women within the hospital and home setting, the use of a mid-wife and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and the effect of cultural authority and medicalization on the birthing experience.

According to the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNMb) (2015), home births account for 1.4% of all births in the US. In eight years the number of home births in the US increased by 41% (ACNM, 2015b). Providing home births fall within the scope of practice of midwives and is supported by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM, 2015b). A mother can have the option of a home birth as long as the home birth follows regulations set in place by the state and can provide a favorable safe environment for both mother and newborn (ACNM, 2015b). Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) state that the ultimate decision of having a home birth is a patient’s right, especially if she is medically well informed (Declercq, & Stotland, 2016).

According to the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNMb) (2015), home births account for 1.4% of all births in the U.S. In eight years the number of home births in the US increased by 41% (ACNM, 2015b). Providing home births falls within the scope of practice of midwives and is supported by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM, 2015b). A mother can have the option of a home birth as long as the home birth follows regulations set in place by the state and can provide a favorable safe environment for both mother and newborn (ACNM, 2015b). Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) state that the ultimate decision of having a home birth is a patient’s right, especially if she is medically well informed (Declercq, & Stotland, 2016).

“In the United States, approximately 25,000 births (0.6%) per year occur in the home. Approximately one fourth of these births are unplanned or unattended. Among women who originally intend to give birth in a hospital or those who make no provisions for professional care during childbirth, subsequent unplanned home births are associated with high rates of perinatal and neonatal mortality. The relative risk versus benefit of a planned home birth, however, remains the subject of current debate” (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists).

What was found was that the woman who did home births went to more prenatal visits and had a lower chance of having a cesarean section (Etches, Farquharson, Janssen, Lee, Peacock, and Ryan, 2002). Surprisingly the rate that ended up going to the hospital during the home birth or after was about 22%, but with the home births there was less use of episiotomy, electronic fetal monitoring, and etc. Researchers found that the Apgar scores that were completed by each group did not change from any of the groups along with the neonates first amount of feces did not change from the groups at all. There was no breech devlieries of babies during the home births. All in all there was no difference in risk between the new mothers or the new born with having a planned baby born at home with a midwife compared to having a planned baby at a hospital with or without a

With technological advances, many United States women are turning to home births rather than hospital births. Avoiding unnecessary medical interventions, previous negative experiences, and mistrust of traditional providers are just some of the common reasons why mothers do not choose hospital births (Boutcher, Bennett, McFarlin, & Freeze, 2009). Home births provide an environment that feels familiar and safe and the mother has an increased sense of control. Even though home births have acceptable safety percentages, they are not well supported by the government, society, or insurance companies (Boutcher et al., 2009).