What's up with this trend to have babies the "old-fashioned" way?

If your pregnancy is identified as potentially "high risk," you won't be allowed to have a home birth, but I have a friend who got around that rule. She's a hospital phobe and wanted to create a serene environment at home. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and everyone is healthy, but we were all terribly nervous. I think it's irresponsible & risky.

There are situations in which this maybe a safe option. However, I believe it makes more sense to humanize hospital delivery systems than to scatter resource and increase the risks of unexpected emergencies.

Why is this the one area of Medicine where people want to go backwards?

There are so many things that can go wrong in the birth process, many of which you just can't handle at home.

You increase the risk for both baby and mom by doing this.

I think it is ok for some people - but you need to have quick access to professional medical care - I would never!

Humans have been born without the aid of a hospital since the beginning of time.  So the real question is, why do people use hospitals?

Fear.  That's it.  Fear that has been induced by the medical industry which controls extend from life to death, and in my opinion, a degradation in quality of life.

Here's why my wife and I have chosen 4 home births:

1.  It's better for the baby.  Being born under the influence of drugs is neither good for mother or baby.  Although the pain of the experience is not fun, there is a special bond created.

2.  It's better for the health of the mother.  Our second baby did result in a hospital transfer.  Although my wife enjoyed the pain relief from the epidural, she also experienced back pain for the next several years because of it.  Hospital births aren't risk free (or pain free either).

3.  Bonding.  You might think that newborn is just a stupid whatever but it's first moments set the foundation for trust it will grow on.  Our second, the hospital born one, has also had the most issues for us to deal with.  For a duration of a couple of years it just didn't seem that she "got" we loved her.  That might have something to do with being (unnecessarily I might add) taken from mom within the first 20 minutes and then spending her first 4 days in an incubator.  Absolutely *nothing* was wrong with her.  She was subjected to a myriad of unnecessary tests, etc, etc.  And at this time that baby is not YOUR baby - the baby is a ward of the state and the state is "free" to do whatever they like with or without your consent.

4.  Cost.  This is really the least of it all, but still important to note.  A home birth is about $3500 versus a hospital birth starting at $10,000.  Our's was $30,000 complete with a $100 bottle of Advil.

5.  The experience.  This is tops for our list.  I, as father, am very much involved in the process.  So are our children, to a lesser extent, yet two have had the opportunity to cut the umbilical cord which is something they'll never forget.  And for mom it's a much more relaxed and personal/spiritual experience.  There is no comparison between home and hospital.

Years ago I contemplated quitting my job and venturing out on my own to start a business.  The main fear I had was that I'd be living without health insurance.  A good friend asked me how often I'd had to use my medical insurance to date and the answer was "Almost never."

Living without health insurance taught me two things - one, to accept more responsibility for keeping myself healthy and two, that life is full of artificial safety nets designed to get us to pay for something we really don't need because we're too damn scared of "what if" scenarios.

It makes slaves of us all and we tend to sell our life short because of someone's clever marketing gimmick which attacks our sense of security.

And just so you don't think my wife and I are a couple of uneducated yocals, she's a licensed physician.

All child birth runs a risk - at home or in a hospital.  But if you're prepared then the odds of something going wrong are a fraction of a percent. 

I think if you set aside your opinions and educate yourself of the upsides and downsides then you'll understand why homebirths are an upward trend.

for low risk pregnancies, home births are the way to go! To get more informed about this issue I would recommend reading up on Ina May Gaskin's website: http://www.inamay.com/ -- she is a renowned midwife and has written many books and articles about the safety and importance of home births. Another good introduction to the debate can be seen in the documentary "The Business of Being Born" (http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/).