5 Reasons to Seriously Consider a Home Birth
For most families giving birth in Waterloo Region, there isn’t even a discussion on where you’ll give birth, because the hospital is the default. With this post I’m going to share five reasons (plus a bonus sixth specific to the COVID-19 Pandemic) why a home birth might be a better option than you would have previously thought.
1. A home birth can be safer than a hospital birth if you have a low-risk pregnancy
A recent study compared over 22,000 births attended by Ontario midwives from 2006-2009, half of which were planned hospital births and half of which were planned home births (Hutton et al., 2016).
Hutton et al. found a planned home birth had no increased risk of:
Low Apgar score
Resuscitation
Stillbirth
Infant death within 28 days of birth
Best of all, they found that those planning a home birth were less likely to have:
Vacuum, forceps or Cesarean delivery
Labour augmentation with Pitocin
Episiotomy or severe tearing
Postpartum hemorrhage
If your birth will be attended by a registered midwife in Ontario, there is no reason not to seriously consider a home birth if you are low-risk and desire a birth without pain medication and other interventions.
2. You don’t need to worry about packing your bags for the hospital
For some families packing their hospital bags is a fun activity, but for others it’s just a hassle. Even if you’re stoked about packing, you might be anxious about forgetting something, or worried you won’t be able to fit everything you want into your chosen bags. When you have a home birth, anything you could possibly want is at most a few rooms away and super easy for your partner or doula to grab for you.
Having a home birth can be especially useful for establishing ritual and rhythm through your contractions. Comfort measures that you may not have even considered packing in your hospital bags (or that would be impossible to bring) might develop naturally as you labour at home. For example, using your makeup brushes on your arms and face to provide soothing distraction, keeping your focus locked on a special photo or trinket, or petting your dog or cat.
3. You won’t need to get in your car while labouring
In pretty much every birth story I’ve read or listened to, it seems like most people agree that having contractions in the car is the absolute worst. One of the best techniques for getting through contractions is movement, especially swaying, leaning forward, or squatting down. And when you’re trapped in the car, movement that will bring some relief is just not possible.
It can be even more annoying if you get all the way to the hospital only for them to tell you you’re not dilated enough for admittance, and suddenly you have two more painful drives to your future.
If you’re at home, you won’t even have to worry about walking out your door, much less getting into what may seem like the smallest clown car to drive to the hospital. You also won’t have to worry about when the “right” time to go to the hospital is. You can simply move through your labour without distraction, which might even help you progress faster.
4. You can eat and drink as much as you need
Despite evidence that supports letting people in labour eat and drink, you’ll probably only be allowed ice chips and water when you are at Grand River or other hospitals in the region. The idea that people shouldn’t be offered food during labour came about in the 1900s when death due to aspiration (choking on vomit) was relatively common. These days, however, the risk of aspiration is astronomically low, ranging from 1 death per 1.4 million births to 1 death per 6.5 million births depending on which study you’re referencing (EBBirth, 2017).
While research hasn’t found any health benefits directly related to eating and drinking during labour, very few of these studies reported on maternal satisfaction, and those that did found dramatically increased satisfaction from people giving birth when food and drink was not restricted (EBBirth, 2017).
If you’re at home, you don’t have to worry about hospital policy dictating your food intake. And especially if you have a long labour, you’ll want plenty of snacks to keep your energy up and give you enough strength to push your baby out.
5. You can sleep in your own bed your very first night with your baby.
After 40 weeks of waiting and hours of exhausting labour, your baby is here. They are perfectly settled in your arms or in a bassinet and you can finally let out a sigh of relief. But wait, now what are you supposed to do?
Most families who give birth in the hospital will spend at least one night there to make sure everything is fine with birther and baby, and in case you need support with infant care or breastfeeding/chestfeeding. That means the first night with your baby you’ll be sleeping in an unknown place in a bed that’s not your own. Even worse, your partner will only be given a reclining chair to sleep on unless you both can squish onto the single bed like you did in University (I know I never slept very well attempting that arrangement).
I’m sure lots of new parents feel perfectly comfortable in the hospital that first night, but you have to admit, there’s nothing quite like your own bed at home. And when you birth at home, you can snuggle into your own blanket and your own pillows as soon as you’re done birthing the placenta. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty cozy to me.
Bonus - You don’t have to wear a mask!
While we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, hospitals in the region are requiring both partners and birthers wear a hospital grade disposable mask while in the labour and delivery ward. You can sometimes take your mask off if your nurse, doctor, or midwife isn’t in the room with you, but it’s hospital policy to have you keep it on the whole time.
You make the rules in your home, and I would certainly understand if you don’t want your hot breath trapped in a mask while you’re moving through one of the hardest physical trials of your life.
Plus, with many fewer people around, the chances of you, your partner, or your baby being exposed to COVID-19 goes waaaaay down.
If any or all of these reasons are making the gears in your brain turn, you’re not alone. Thousands of families every day are reconsidering the hospital as the default birthing location. Let’s chat more about what birthing at home might look like for you! Book a free consultation today. I can’t wait to hear from you.
Much love,
Sasha
