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Love's labors aren't lost at home
By Deborah Taylor-Hollis
December is the season of miracles, and the birth of a child is one of the greatest. Giving birth at home is spectacular, wondrous--and almost unheard of these days. My dear neighbors, Debbie and Keith, were blessed by such a life-changing event two days after Thanksgiving.
Their labor assistant, Maureen Jackson, also happened to be my trained Bradley instructor during my pregnancy seven years ago. Maureen has been a laboring-mother supporter for almost a decade, and she is closely involved with the home birth movement. She also gave birth to her third child, Trevor, at home.
County public health records for 1998 (the last completed year) show that out of 26,641 births, 118 were planned home deliveries, up 19 from 1997. Those 118 women faced a constant uphill battle to have their children at home. Countywide, fewer than 12 providers help women with home birth.
Although home births are considered normal in England--and are supported by the national medical insurance--home births and breast feeding in America declined in the '50s as "modern miracle medicine" herded women into doctors' offices and hospitals. By the '70s, insurers charged doctors' ridiculous premiums for home practices. Docs faced pressure from hospitals to generate revenue and to bring in patients; hospitals even denied doctors admitting privileges if they allowed patients to deliver at home. It is now normal for hospitals to refuse doctors access if they even "back up" midwives who do home births.
The last freestanding alternative birthing center in the county closed in June 1993 due to these political pressures. Women were left to choose "between hospitals with their procedures, paperwork, costs and infectious disease rates," or home birthing and the lack of instantaneous medical emergency interventions, as Maureen explains.
"The biggest thing [about home birth] is the air of respect for the birthing mom," Maureen says. She says friends who attended her own home birth "were amazed that the midwives never even looked at me without my permission. Nobody touches the mother without her complete consent. ... That and the fact that you are avoiding foreign germs, you're staying in your own comfort and safety of your own home, shower, bed, wonderful people to clean up for you, your own food.
"Home birth can be much more of a family experience," Maureen continues. "For low-risk women, it's safer to birth at home because you have eliminated doctor- or procedure-caused problems. The more interventions you take, especially the unneeded ones, there is a snowball effect that will lead to more and more unnecessary and serious interventions, culminating often times in the deteriorated birth experiences. ... Women's preferences and choices [are] being ignored in favor of arbitrary protocol, procedures and times schedules."
New mom Debbie echoes Maureen's sentiments: "It was just so nice being in our own environment. It was really cozy being home, it was nice to hear JD [her toddler son], playing in the background, laughing, and to have him come in to be with us. Had we gone to a hospital, he might have lasted 20 minutes in a room and then had to leave.
"I felt more comfortable than in the hospital," Debbie adds, "because they [the midwife and birthing assistant] are there with you full time. They didn't leave; I was never left alone."
Maureen recalls the same kinds of emotions. "The respect, and not having to travel; [having] only people around who loved me. I didn't feel like I was going to have to argue with anyone to avoid interventions--and I didn't. Even with my second [birth], I had to argue with the doctor who showed up [after] giving me drugs. I was only there for 45 minutes before Spencer was born, and then [the doctor] swore at me afterwards because I didn't take a pudendal block."
"I didn't have a bad experience at the hospital," Debbie says, "but at home, I just kinda felt like that was the way it was supposed to be; women around, nothing was strange, you didn't have to go anywhere to do it."
As the 20th century comes to a close, the miracle of a child being born is still wondrous to behold.
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Campbell, California
