Top 10 Reasons Why Home Birth Is a Far Better Experience than Hospital Births and Birth Centers
Where you choose to give birth is entirely your decision, and no one can make it for you.
However, there is a prevailing assumption in our modern culture that hospital births are just ‘what you do,’ and most people consider home births to be antiquated, if the idea even enters their minds.
But as you’re about to see, unless you have medical complications surrounding your pregnancy, a home birth isn’t just a very viable choice. It will give you a far better life experience.
Here are ten reasons why home birth is very often the best way to deliver your baby.
1. Home Births are Safer than Hospitals
Seems backwards at first, right? In a hospital you have pain meds and all the equipment that’s on stand by in case something goes wrong. However, the reality is that it’s quite rare for something to go wrong that a skilled midwife cannot handle.
We’ve lived it – twice. And the data backs it up too.
A study referenced in The Seattle Times found that states with a higher prevalence of midwives had lower rates of C-sections, premature births, and infant mortality. The same study ranked Washington state as #1 for “midwife-friendly policies.”
Catch that? Use a midwife, and you have a lower chance of having a premature baby, losing the baby, or needing a C-section.
Another study reports that only 6-8% of pregnancies are considered high risk, and NPR reported that only 1% of pregnancies actually endure complications.
Hardly anyone needs to give birth in a hospital for safety reasons. Some do, but nearly everyone else will increase their chances of a more healthy and enjoyable outcome if they give birth at home.
In the age of Covid-19, this is even more true, because at home you don’t have to worry about anyone else coming to your room who might bring Covid with them. Plus, even if your room is safe, your relatives and everyone else coming to assist and visit have to traipse through the hospital and all the Covid cases they might be dealing with – not to mention people contagious with other diseases.
2. Home Births are Faster
The delivery itself might not be faster. Although, midwives – with the freedom to move the birthing mother around and have her take a variety of positions rather than just laying on her back in bed – are able to help spur labor a bit when given the freedom to run the process.
Aside from that, the entirety of the birth experience will be faster almost every time in a home birth. Why? Because after you give birth in the hospital, they take your baby and perform a bunch of tests. They keep you under observation. They go through all their checklists and procedures.
In our Lamaze class, there was a couple who gave birth in a hospital, and her labor was about three hours. Our labor – done at a birth center for that child – was about 20 hours.
Back in math class, you learned that 3 is less than 20.
But in the world of hospital births, that is not always the case. That couple spent more time in the hospital than we spent at the birth center. We showed up at 6am, and went home at 1am. Less than 24 hours. The other couple was in the hospital for longer than that, even with 17 fewer hours of labor!
In a home birth, you have the baby, and you’re done.
3. You Have More Control in a Home Birth
When you do a home birth, you can invite anyone you want to be there, whenever you want. You can go anywhere you want throughout your house. No permission required. No other patients, nurses, or doctors you might run into.
You can wear whatever you want without fear or concern.
You can have whatever you want to eat or drink, and you don’t have to remember to pack it all, or send anyone out to rush to the store to get something your forgot.
You can put the birth tub where you want it. You can set up your house exactly how you want it. In a home birth, you have complete control over all these secondary but very important details.
4. Home Births Are More Memorable
Trust us – they are. We can point to the exact spot in our home where our son was born. We remember each stage of the experience. Who was where when the big moments happened. Where the birth tub was, and how easily we were able to use it.
We can relive the emotions, the surprises, the moment when the midwife saved the day, and everything in between.
We have memories, and they stay with us forever. In a hospital, you simply don’t get this experience in the same way. Especially if they numb you out with pain meds.
5. Home Births are More Private
You let in who you want, and you keep out who you want.
No second shift nurse or substitute doctor is doing to waltz in while you’re laying there for all to see.
You can open or close the blinds, and control your privacy room by room.
6. You Can Open the Windows
At some birth centers, like one in Seattle, the windows do not open.
While this might not matter if you give birth in December, if you give birth in July, and have a 25-hour labor in a sunny room with no breeze, you will get HOT and uncomfortable. Ugh.
7. You Never Lose Sight of Your Baby
In a hospital, after you give birth they take your baby away and do a bunch of tests. Welcome to life, let’s prick and prod you away from your mother. No.
In a home birth, your midwife will perform tasks like the Vitamin K shot, but you will be there. Your baby is with you the whole time. These precious first few moments after giving birth are ones you will cherish for life. If you miss them, you will never get them back.
In a home birth, your baby never gets taken away and put in a room with a bunch of other babies (that you hope they don’t mix up!)
8. Much Less to Plan
If you give birth outside the home, you have to plan a whole bunch of stuff, such as:
- What to bring – food, clothes, drinks, snacks, music, scents, etc
- When to leave your house
- Who is driving
- What happens if your primary driver isn’t there when labor starts
In a home birth, you won’t worry about forgetting anything at home, because… yeah, you got it.
At our first birth, which we did at a birth center, we forgot to bring the anti-vomiting medication. That was a bad situation, so Dan had to speed home and get it. The problem? Our car was blocked in because people double-parked around us!
And because the birth center was locked, he couldn’t get back in to ask someone else to lend him their car. So he had to stand outside tossing rocks and barkdust at the windows. The people inside heard him, but they thought a bird must have flown into the window. Eventually, they clued in.
Ah yes… we do have some memories. But not the kind you want when you’re vomiting every ten minutes…
One note: You will still need an overnight bag, in case you do need to be taken to the hospital. While this is unlikely, you need to be prepared.
9. It’s Natural – Your Body Was Made for This
For thousands of years, home births were the only option, and women have given birth since the beginning of time without hospitals.
Your body knows what to do.
And when it doesn’t, your midwife will. Midwives and doulas are brilliant people. We were overwhelmingly impressed with them at both our births, and recommend them to every expecting mother.
At both births, certain issues arose that were making the labor and birth process difficult. But our midwife, Cindie Brown from Midwife Seattle, figured out the problem, came up with a solution, and addressed it. Calmly and professionally.
Not only have women been giving birth naturally forever, but midwives have been there with them. Midwives appear in ancient texts such as Exodus, before Moses was born, when they defied the Egyptian Pharaoh’s orders to toss all the Hebrew babies into the Nile River.
Humans know how to save and deliver babies!
10. At Home, You Can Use a Heated Birth Tub
As if the other reasons on this list weren’t enough, when you relax your laboring body slowly into the warm water of a spacious, heated home birth tub, you will wonder why you ever considered giving birth anywhere else.
At home, you can set up a heated birth tub and have the most luxurious and relaxing labor and delivery experience possible. There is no equal.
Hospitals don’t have them. Birth centers don’t have them.
And the heated part is especially important because when labor goes on for many hours, a non-heated tub will become cold and uncomfortable, and changing out the water is noisy and extremely time-consuming.
With a heated tub, you never have to leave the warmth and comfort unless you want to. You can sway your way through labor, peacefully basking in the privacy of your home, with the people you wanted there, with your snacks and drinks at the ready, looking forward to a quick and safe conclusion to this most memorable experience of your life.
There is nothing like a home birth!