Let’s Talk About Home Birth
Are you having an uncomplicated pregnancy? Are you fit and healthy? Have you considered home birth?
Culturally, we seem to be in a bit of a tizz about home birth. Collectively, we believe that we are putting mother and baby in danger if the bells and whistles of hospital are not at our disposal. But what does the actual evidence tell us? Of course, with over 98% of births in the UK currently happening in hospital, it is difficult to extrapolate real data and sensibly assess risk.
A comprehensive study The Birth Place Study was conducted between 2006 and 2012 and is definitely worth a read.
My second daughter was born at home - with no fuss and a great deal of bliss. After I delivered my first baby relatively easily following an (unnecessary I now believe) induction, I knew that I could do it again and that I would feel more comfortable doing so in my own home, surrounded by familiar sights, sounds and smells.
When I began my doula training, I was signposted to a book called Hypnobirthing by Marie Mongan. It opens with her describing watching her cat give birth to kittens. The cat found a dark corner of the house. She actually moved and left her first kitten when she heard a dog barking. She (the cat) needed to feel safe in order to birth successfully.
As I read this, I realised that the same is true for us humans. Most labours slow down or stop completely when it comes to time to leave for the hospital. And of course it makes perfect sense that that would happen, Labour contractions depend on the presence of a hormone called oxytocin. It is the love hormone and it is often described as being ‘shy’. Oxytocin shares what is known as a negative feedback loop with another hormone - adrenaline. That basically means that if adrenaline is present, the production of oxytocin is switched off and, accordingly, contractions of the uterus stop. This is what causes labour to slow down or stop completely.
You can imagine, I’m sure, that when a woman leaves the safety and familiarity of her home, sits in an uncomfortable car, enters a building which she, consciously or unconsciously, associates with disease and or death, encounters strangers, hears strange sounds, and smells unfamiliar odours adrenaline inevitably rises. She is not comfortable. She is no longer surrounded by her own beloved environment. She is going to a place of uncertainty and fear. Her oxytocin levels fall away and her labour stops.
Imagine that cat giving birth. Would you pick her up, drive her down the road to a neighbour’s home, plonk her on a table under bright lights, start sticking fingers into her birth canal? Would you tell her that she is “only 2cm”? Would you? I suspect not.
But this is what is done to labouring women routinely. We take a birthing woman out of her familiar surroundings. We make her uncomfortable in the back of a car. We rush her down bright corridors into rooms with strange equipment sticking out of the walls and the bed centre stage. We take away her autonomy and we make her feel scared.
Of course I understand that home birth is not a choice that every woman wants to make or feels is right for her and the same need to feel safe applies. If being at home would stress you out then hospital is a better bet for you.
But if you are fit and healthy, if you are having an uncomplicated pregnancy, particularly if this is your second or subsequent baby, it may be a really good idea to take a read of or listen to some of the resources available. Pregnancy is not an illness and mostly birth is a safe process. Did you watch Call The Midwife? We had babies in our homes for decades until Dr John Peel decided in 1970 that 100% of births needed to be in hospital. I wish I knew why. I wish I knew why women have been so undermined and why our ability to tune into our own bodies and that of our unborn child has been almost completely eliminated from birth in the 21st Century.
If you would like to get back in touch with your body and that of your baby, I recommend you navigate back to the homepage of this website and scroll down to my short meditation “Connecting With Your Unborn Child”. You are welcome to download this meditation or to come back to this website and listen to it whenever you feel to. I encourage you to do so regularly and often. Several times a day is optimal.
If you want to hear an obstetrician talking about her experiences with home birth, take a listen to Florence Wilcock on her podcast Obs Pod on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. You can also hear me on Stories From The Womb discussing maternity services with my teacher Maddie. Also on Spotify.
Whatever you choose for your body, your baby and your family is just right. I simply invite you to take a peek out of the cultural norms and consider the amazing empowered experience that home birth most often is.
