The Home Birth Advantage: The Physical and Emotional Benefits of Birthing at Home

Ronnie Falcão, LM, MS

Original Article Published in Pathways Winter 2009 Issue, more info available at http://www.pathwaystofamilywellness.org

When it comes to what’s best for you and your baby, you can consider a midwife-assisted home birth as safe an option as birthing in a hospital or free-standing birth center. At a home birth, your privacy will be respected and you can enjoy birthing in an intimate, family atmosphere. By birthing at home, you’ll be treated like a woman going through a natural process. Too often in hospitals, birthing women are made to feel more like patients with a dangerous condition.

Homebirth midwives carry the same equipment and medications found in a birth center. These includes handheld Dopplers and state-of-the-art machines for continuous monitoring of the baby’s heart rate, if necessary. Midwives also bring suctioning equipment and an oxygen tank to every birth, in the rare event they are needed. Anti-hemorrhagic medications will be on hand to prevent postpartum hemorrhaging, as will suturing equipment in case you tear...

About the Author:

Ronnie Falcao, LM MS is a homebirth midwife practicing in and around Mountain View, California. Direct-entry midwife trained through a homebirth apprenticeship and a residential internship at Casa de Nacimiento birth center in El Paso, TX. Licensed in 1997 under the California Challenge Process through the Seattle School of Midwifery. Twelve years in homebirth practice. She is also editor of the Midwife Archives at gentlebirth.org/archives. Ronnie's personal webpage is www.gentlebirth.org.