Infant Parent Healing "We are each the union of the Mother and the Father."

Janel Martin-Miranda, MA, LPC (IL) Prenatal and Birth Focused Counselor CranioSacral Therapist

Assisting and supporting parents to create healthy attachment

and bonding with their baby -- for a lifetime

Homebirth, Midwifery, and Birth Centers

Women have a right to choice and decision-making

over their physiology and bodies

Pain, large babies, and fear of complications are issues that women sort through in their decision-making about birth. How does one make an informed decision? One local homebirth mom who was born cesarean was determined to have a natural birth. During her first pregnancy when she planned to birth at home she teetered between wanting to assume full responsibility for her baby's birth and just going in and giving over the control and responsibility for her body and her birth. THIS is the crux of the issue today facing birthing women and physicians who are held responsible. Birth is about a woman's body being responsible for her choices and decisions and her body. The medical environment dictated by poor science and malpractice crisis in the US makes doctors, not women responsible. The outcome is that women are disempowered.

Her story is a beautiful and touching story of personal healing of her body and soul and creating the best experience for her own babies. Her story touches a huge issue in birth today...how do women claim responsibility and power for their bodies and birth in a system that fights them every step of the way? Why does a woman who wants to be totally responsible for her birth have to ultimately choose homebirth? And, when shown to be safer than hospital birth, why are obstetricians so united and adamantly opposed to it? Why does the medical profession promote planned c-sections for "big babies" (often coinciding with due dates near holidays and vacations)? What is the truth about the evidenced based science?? Read on .... there's lots here. I just keep adding it as I find it.

The Pregnant Woman's Homebirth

BILL OF RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES

from Homebirth Australia

http://www.homebirthaustralia.org/homebirth.html

This are Rights and Responsibilities of any pregnant woman

where ever she births.

Modern Birth Centers Find

Alternative Birth Methods Safe and Effective

http://www.mercola.com/2000/oct/22/birth_methods.htm

(It's odd that natural birth is now considered the "alternative" method.

Anyway, it's a good article.)

Learn Why Having a Baby with Naturally is Best

Interview with Peggy O'Mara, editor of Mothering Magazine

http://www.mercola.com/2003/sep/20/natural_birth.htm

Great quotes!

"Rupturing the membranes speeds up delivery - that is first stage with one or two hours. Ask your obstetrician what scientific evidence there is that this is better for the mother or child (There is no such evidence!). I once read an analogy between between labour and a woman making love - warming up slowly, staying on top for a while waiting for the climax, and the orgasm a slow, pulsating experience. (Male) doctors want it to be a manly affair, energetic job for a couple of minutes, a few good pushes and out gets the result!"

http://www.radmid.demon.co.uk/arm.htm#why

The Pain of Labour: A Feminist Issue

By Andrea Robertson

Pain in labour is universal: it hurts to give birth. Since this is such a common experience it could be seen as comforting, a bond among women, a fundamental truth that confirms our special biological role and affirms the importance of our contribution to society. More often, however, it is seen as a blight, an unnecessary imposition, an affliction we must bear as the price for bearing children. This view, bolstered by the perception that pain is a symptom of disease and illness, has enabled medical men to convince us that pain is dispensable during birth, and is of no value, an evil to be cured with modern treatments and technology…

Andrea Robertson’s complete article is available at http://www.birthinternational.com/articles/painlabour.html.

Please check out the following information relating to homebirth & midwifery:

Home Birth Reference Site - Contains valuable homebirth information.

Suzanne Arms' site - Has a page on scientific research for safe homebirths.

Hello Baby by Sheila Kitzinger - This is adapted from Sheila's new book, Birth Your Way: Choosing Birth at Home or in a Birth Center, to be published in March 2002 by Dorling Kindersley.

Home Birth Versus Hospital Birth - This article discusses research on obstetric hospital birth versus homebirth.

The Place of Birth: The Dutch Midwifery System by Beatrijs Smulders.

Evidence-Based Research on Home Birth

Notice that much of the research that shows the safety of midwifery and homebirth is from the mid eighties, around the same time that epidural anesthesia became very popularized by the medical promotion of it as safe and "natural" and increasing the fear-factor about pain in labor.

The Index of Research on Home Birth

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/ owned by Angela Horn is a thorough,

well-done presentation of literature on homebirth around the world.

It is so good that I put the information at the end of this page,

so you can check it out now (scroll down and come back up).

http://www.ub2b.com/AtHome/HomeBirth.html

Summary of literature in ("Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities,

A Guide to the Medical Literature", Henci Goer, Bergin & Garvey, 1995)

-- Check back for more on homebirth in the US.--

Meanwhile, the most recent research published in 2005

Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America

Kenneth C Johnson, Betty-Anne Daviss

is available in full text at:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416

and from the mid 80's :

Neonatal mortality in Missouri home births, 1978-84.
Schramm WF, Barnes DE, Bakewell JM

American Journal of Public Health, 1987, Aug 77(8)930-5

A study was conducted of 4,054 Missouri home births occurring from 1978 through 1984. Of the 3,645 births whose planning status was identified, 3,067 (84 per cent) were planned to be at home. Neonatal mortality was elevated for both planned (17 observed deaths vs 8.59 expected deaths) and unplanned home births (45 observed vs 33.19 expected) compared with physician-attended hospital births. Nearly all of the mortality excess for planned home births occurred in association with lesser trained attendants (12 observed vs 4.42 expected), while for unplanned home births the excess was entirely among infants weighing 1500 grams or more (19 observed vs 3.50 expected). For planned home births attended by physicians, certified nurse-midwives, or Missouri Midwife Association recognized midwives, there was little difference between observed and expected deaths (5 observed vs 3.92 expected)**. There also was little difference in deaths for unplanned home births weighing less than 1500 grams (26 observed vs 29.69 expected) compared with hospital births. The study provides evidence of the importance of having skilled attendants present at planned home births

** Inspite of the research showing homebirth is as safe as hospital birth in MO, the laws in Missouri allow a midwife to be charged with felony for practicing medicine without a license and no longer allows for certification and licensure of qualified midwives. MO Legislature is again reviewing this .

From the Missourian News, January 8, 2006:

Midwife bill lacks legislative support:

A rally to support bill to allow midwives is set for today.

http://columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=17772

The following Index of Research on Home Birth is from the webpage http://www.homebirth.org.uk/ owned by Angela Horn.

Home Birth Reference Site

Index of Research on Home Birth

I have tried to put the main findings of the research listed here in plain English. Each summary of a research paper includes a link to its abstract on Medline, the international database of medical research, or to the full study in an online medical journal, where either is available. This is so that you can check the original report for yourself, rather than relying on my summary.

The research summaries are presented as five long pages, to make printing easy.

How do we know which studies are fair? The notes on methodology offer some pointers.

Page One:

National Birthday Trust Report By Chamberlain et al, 1997 - enquiry into UK home births in 1994.
Birth at home By Chamberlain, Wraight and Crowley, 1997.

Page Six: Transferring from a Home Birth

This page looks at studies which reported on mothers who planned home births but transferred to hospital. Some of the studies are discussed on other pages, as noted below; this page focusses only on their findings regarding transfers.

Transfer from home to hospital: what is its effect on the experience of childbirth? By Wiegers et al, 1998.
Place of delivery in The Netherlands: actual location of confinement By Kleiverda et al, 1991.
Four years' experience with home birth by licensed midwives in Arizona. By Sullivan and Beeman, 1983
National Birthday Trust Report, also featured on Page One.
Blues and depression during early puerperium: home versus hospital deliveries By Pop et al, 1995. Study also featured on Page One but transfer rates only mentioned here.
Home births in South-West Australia By Howe, 1988, also featured on Page Two.
Prospective regional study of planned home births By Davies et al, 1996, also featured on Page Two.
Outcomes of 1001 midwife-attended home births in Toronto, 1983-1988 by H Tyson, 1991, also featured on Page Three.

Vaginal Birth After Caesarean

For research on Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC), please see the VBAC Pages.

A Baby's Birth - is a continuum of critical periods of physiological development that begins even before conception and completes at the mother's breast, in the arms of the father, and will be lived throughout life. -- Janel Martin-Miranda

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