Pregnancy and Birthing Q&A
What are my choices for birth location?
Really,
you can have your baby just about anywhere, but generally,
people choose to have babies either in hospitals, birth centers
or at home.
Births in hospitals are generally attended by
doctors or nurse midwives. The hospital is the ideal place to
have your baby if you are experiencing a high risk pregnancy.
Some women choose hospitals because they wish to have medicinal
pain relief during labor, because they like the service and
experience of the hospital, or because they feel safer there. It
is important to note, however, that the vast majority of studies
have found tat for low risk pregnancy, hospitals are no safer
than birth centers or a planned home birth with an experienced
midwife.
If you are lucky enough to live near a birth center, you may
find their services and care more intimate and luxurious than a
hospital. Birth center births are generally attended by midwives
who provide constant care during labor and birth, unlike the
intermittent care provided by nurses and doctors/midwives in
hospitals. You will also likely have more options for where and
how you birth; standing, squatting, in a birth tub, etc.
Medicinal pain relief such as epidurals are not generally
available in birth centers.
Home births are generally
attended by midwives, although some doctors still attend home
births. Midwives come to your home with everything needed for a
normal birth and to handle common complications. There is
nothing an EMT can do that a home birth midwife cannot also do.
Some women are much more comfortable in their own homes than
they are traveling for birth, and the risk of infection in a
home birth is much lower, because the mother already has
immunity to all the germs in the house. A home birth midwife can
also bring a birth tub, if you are hoping for a water birth.
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