Homebirth in the News

I recently read a few articles about homebirth that I would like to share.

I really liked this article because it presented a pretty positive perspective on homebirthing in general. A lot of people don't realize that for a healthy woman with a healthy pregnancy, a homebirth can be just as safe, or even safer, than a hospital birth. The article also describes another benefit of homebirth that isn't discussed as much: homebirths aren't as expensive as hospital births.

Another great article I recently read was written from the perspective of that father, Nathan. Although his wife gave birth at a free standing birth center and not at home, I think it is important to read his article because it is not often that you hear about a non-medical birth from a father's viewpoint. Nathan also mentions some important points about birth in the United States in general. For example, he writes:

In the US, just 8% of births use midwives, yet midwives attend 90 percent of normal births in Germany and virtually all normal births in Denmark and France. There is a whole feminist view of the denial of women's autonomy involved in the history of shifting power over births in the US from a female-dominated widwife profession to a male-dominated obstretrician hierarchy, but along with the overall medicalization of birth, the changes also are part and parcel of the ridiculous costs of the US health care system.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about hospital birth vs. home birth, then check out the hospital birth debate blog.

Homebirth in the News