Want To Know The Advantages Of Natural Births?
It’s odd to think that society often considers us strange if we consider having a child anywhere but in a hospital because “natural childbirth” used to be the only method of child birth. A home birth was the norm in those days. Then, things changed. Those first hospitals had a much higher mortality rates for both mothers and infants than giving birth at home, as recently as 100 years ago.
Clearly, medical practice has changed much since the first days of labor and delivery in some of those first hospitals, but some things truly haven’t. When you line up all the statistics on home birth versus hospital births, natural births are still safer for the majority of moms and babies.
There are, of course some instances when women are better off having a hospital birth. This can be because the birth is high risk or because mom is expecting multiple births. High risk births may mean a preemie baby or a mom with a defined illness such as diabetes or preeclampsia. Even if an expectant mom has high blood pressure, this may be considered a high risk birth. However, apart from these examples, the best choice is home birth.
There are several reasons a woman may choose to give birth at home. Often, moms have more liberty about such things as moving around and taking their time, where, at a hospital, mom may be confined to a bed, sometimes even strapped in. Being confined in such a way often itself causes a delay in labor. Depending on what time a year mom goes into labor, the hospital may not allow certain visitors to the labor room. This could happen when there is a flu epidemic or some other emergency that impacts on hospital resources.
There is another serious complication of hospital stays and that is infection. Infection in hospitals can cause various complication and even death in some cases. It has been suggested, as a joke, that the main cause of death in the US is hospitals. But in all seriousness, hospital stays can put both mom’s and baby’s health at risk as well as limiting birthing options.
There are, of course, other factors that make natural births a better option as well. An article published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 states that planned home births for low risk women are as safe and are subject to less medical intervention as similar risk hospital births. This, of course, really raises the question as to how many hospital procedures are performed that really aren’t needed.
Overall, natural births are usually a safer option than hospital births and offer mom choices that she might, in fact, not even have in the hospital, not the least of which is a safe delivery, surrounded by the people she loves.