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Expert Q&A
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| By Kelly Camden Certified Doula | ||
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What are the benefits of a homebirth?
Giving birth at home offers many things that a hospital cannot provide, such as privacy, the comfort of your own home and bedroom, the opportunity to sleep in your own bed and to snuggle with your partner. Mothers experience support for natural birth and true freedom of movement for laboring and birthing in the positions that they choose.
When preparing for homebirths, the midwife gets to know each family very well, as she tends to spend an hour on each prenatal visit. She will care for you during labor, often with the help of an assistant. This is very different from hospitals, where many staff members are in and out of the room. Overall, mothers who give birth at home enjoy the experience, with "over 97 percent reporting that they were extremely or very satisfied," according to homebirth study that appeared in the journal British American Journal (June, 2005).
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