More Babies Prefer Home Birth

A home birth dad has invited other home birth fathers to answer ten questions.  Read what nine dads have to say about the home births of their children. 

*The 7 Secrets of Being A Home Birth Dad *

By Ven Batista

Ven Batista wrote this article after his wife, Bel, had her second daughter at home in London.

All Dads-to-be are nervous, or at least skeptical, when their wife/partner first mentions the idea of having a home birth. This is nothing to be ashamed of – us guys are conditioned by a lifetimes constant bombardment that Doctors know best and that it is our patriarch’s duty to always make the safest choices. That’s why when my wife Bel first brought up the idea for the birth of our second daughter, my first train of thought was about risk. Images of John Hurt’s chest cracking open and a tiny, evil alien being screeching its bloody arrival to the universe ran through my mind. I looked up at the walls of our apartment and wondered whether an arterial spray of blood could ever be washed out of that particular shade of off-white.

Ten minutes’ googling dissolved my misconception that home birth is reckless (with Bel peering over my shoulder and directing me to websites she’d already read). In a nutshell, there are studies for and against, but if you listen to your own common sense you will probably agree it’s just as safe, if not safer. You can find all that stuff for yourself, what I want to really want to talk about is the second train of though that ran through my head – why?

Why have a home birth? My wife had her reasons and she laid them out for me. Bel had a horrible experience in hospital with our first daughter and that was a big part of it. As Bel explained it to me I nodded and said ‘umm’ a lot and was happy to go along with it because I knew it was what she wanted. But I never had reasons of my own – from my selfish perspective as a Dad – until after I had experienced it for myself. These reasons are the 7 secrets I want to share with you Dads now so that you can appreciate your home birth the first time round.

Read the article…

While many people don’t understand why you may want to choose a home birth, there are many benefits to staying home to birth your baby.

1.  You are in your comfort zone. Instead of traveling during labor (which can disrupt your labor pattern), you are free to do what you want in your home. You don’t need to fit anyone else’s protocols or routines… you can create your own.

2.  You can eat and drink to your heart’s content. Some hospitals limit what you can eat, or even if you can eat at all during labor. Your body is using a lot of energy in labor, and you may need to eat or drink something nutritious to replenish that energy. In the hospital, they don’t let you attend to these basic needs of your body.

3.  No interventions. You won’t need to worry about the pain and inconvenience of an IV, electronic fetal monitoring, and the embarrassment of having your urine measured. No one can slip you a little pitocin without your knowledge to “augment” your labor.

4.  Labor and birth in whatever position you want. You’re not limited to the bed in a semi-sitting or lithotomy position. You can walk around, rock in a chair, bounce on a birth ball or lean on the wall. You can make noise if it helps. Birth standing up, on your hands and knees or hugging your partner.

5.  Your baby is born into your own environment, not one rife with germs. Hospitals are made for sick people. It is not uncommon for newborns and their mothers to contract infections and diseases during their stay. At home, you are surrounded by your own germs that you are used to living with.

As you can see, these benefits of home birth are beneficial to you and your family. They will help your labor and birth to be smoother, with fewer complications since your body’s hormonal responses to labor will not be interrupted. You will be able to experience the hormonal reward that peaks after the birth of your baby. This mix of hormones helps you bond with your new baby. Your baby’s hormonal responses to birth are also uninterrupted. Your baby will feel safe and loved from the first moment because they weren’t pulled, yanked on or cut from your belly. They weren’t inundated with ultrasound waves from the electronic fetal monitor. Your baby was allowed to birth the way she was meant to be birthed.

Toni Rakestraw has studied birth for 18 years, and she is the mother of 8 children; 4 were born in the hospital and 4 were born at home. She and her husband are the owners of http://organic-birth.com where they are striving to educate new parents to be how to get the best start for both mother and baby.

~reprinted with permission