In Australia the option to birth at home is not one that many people consider. In fact many people don't even realise that they have that option. They have been brought up through experience, school, TV and society in general to assume that all births happen in a hospital and by a doctor. In other parts of the world, however, the choice to birth at home is much more common.
More and more we are starting to realise that birth is a natural process rather than a disease that needs to be managed. Submissions to the Federal government's recent maternity review confirm this. As a result people are starting to look more closely at the research around home birth, and the results may surprise you.
Don't get me wrong: there is a place for birthing interventions. In fact if you are in a high risk group, a hospital managed birth may well be the best option for you.
However, if you are in the vast majority of people who don't fit that bill, then research suggests that a home birth is as safe or more than a hospital birth. In fact one large study published by the British Journal of Medicine in 2005 showed home births for low-risk pregnancies were as safe as hospital births, and had much lower rates of intervention. Of course if anything unexpected does happen, your midwife will be able to advise you what to do, and arrange for you to move to hospital if necessary.
So if you consider birth to be a healthy, natural process rather than a medical event that needs to be managed, you may wish to birth your baby at home with a private, experienced midwife.
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