I work with your family during your pregnancy in preparation for your home birth as well as provide labor and immediate postpartum support.  While your midwife is in charge of your medical well-being and that of your newborn, I take care of  your emotional and physical needs and help you  with information gathering throughout the whole process.  At your birth, I provide the comfort you need while modeling for your partner how to comfort you as well.  I also provide suggestions to help move labor along.  Trained as a midwife assistant, I can lend a hand to the midwife team if needed.  My packages include extra postpartum visits so that we may process the birth, go over self-care practices and baby care, and make sure breast-feeding is going well. After your home birth, I help with clean-up, make sure you have a few meals prepared, help with bonding, and can take pictures. 

At a home birth, everyone has the same priority: a healthy mother and a healthy baby.  When a couple chooses to have their baby at home, they have learned that statistics support the safety of home birth for healthy mothers experiencing normal pregnancies. They also come to understand the many advantages to home birth for the baby as well as the mother and the entire family.  Here you will find the reasons women find comfort in home birth and a beautiful article from Midwifery Today.

Some interesting facts:
*For centuries giving birth at home was the normal thing to do, but by the 1900's women slowly began changing their birth setting by going to hospitals.
*It is estimated that as many as 90% of the world's current population of 6 billion, was born at home.
*The World Health Organization has said that there is no proof that hospital births are safer than home births in the developed world.
*Most of the research on home births in the developed world has found that infant and maternal mortality rates are the same, if not better, than hospital rates.
*There was a time when doctors wouldn't even consider delivering a child since that was "women's work".
*1% of babies born need life-saving resuscitation or interventions when born.

Advantages for the Baby

• He or she is more likely to be born vaginally, without the breathing difficulties often caused by cesarean section and/or anesthesia.
• There is less likelihood of infection when the baby is with the mother than the in newborn nursery.
• The baby’s experience at birth is considered important and made as gentle as possible. Routine procedures such as deep suctioning and unnecessary stimulation are avoided.
• The baby is not separated from the mother. The mother-infant bond is never sacrificed for institutional procedures.
• Breastfeeding is easier to establish when the baby can nurse on demand and is not given bottles.

Advantages for the Mother

• She is not subjected to routine procedures such as immobilization for electronic monitoring, IV’s,  multiple vaginal exams or stirrups.
• She can eat and walk freely.
  
• She will have continuity of care with the same attendants, increasing safety.
• She is more likely to be treated and her progress evaluated as an individual, rather than being sacrificed to protocols or statistical averages.
  
• She is much less likely to request or require drugs for pain, forceps or a cesarean section when she has attendants who know that birth is a normal physiological function.
• She is comfortable in her own surroundings, relaxed and able to labor and deliver wherever she chooses.
• She has less chance of developing an infection.
• Postpartum depression is less common since there is no separation of mother and baby and the midwife relationship/support continues well after the birth.
  

Advantages for the Family

• Partners are in their own homes, not "allowed" to be present; they can participate as fully as they please.
• Other children can be present as appropriate.
• The birth is an integral part of family life, which helps with postpartum adjustment.
  

Disadvantages

• Requires a higher level of effort and responsibility.
• Often not supported by society or doctors.
• Access to some emergency equipment can be delayed and require transport

Minimizing the Risks
Like birth in the hospital, homebirth is not risk-free. You can minimize the risks by:

• Eating well and gaining adequate weight which can help in avoiding high blood pressure and other complications
• Finding a midwife who is skilled, confident and experienced in birth at home
• Receiving prenatal midwifery care
  
• Informing yourselves through reading, classes, videos and other resources
• Having adequate support during labor and postpartum
• Having a plan for facilitating transfer to the hospital, if necessary, which you and your midwife have discussed and posting telephone numbers by the phone 
  

From "Homebirth as the Standard of Care" By Rahima Baldwin Dancy Article copyright 2001 by Informed Homebirth, IHIBP@sbcglobal.net