The moment Alison Berry anticipates the most is the one that mothers long for in their hearts: To hold their baby snug to their chest, the instant after birth.
For Berry, 33, that tender experience will happen at her home in Bliss, north of Harbor Springs, sometime around March 1. Certified professional midwife Kathi Mulder of Traverse City will be on hand assisting with the delivery, an option for some mothers-to-be rather than a hospital delivery.
“From the moment the baby arrives, the baby is with the mom. Nobody comes and takes the baby away,” said Berry. “Giving birth is a rite of passage for women, it’s not just a procedure. And this is not a home birth-versus-hospital thing. It really just depends on what you want as a woman.”
The midwife option
Earlier in 2008, the remaining private practice in Petoskey offering midwifery services, Bay View Obstetrics and Gynecology, announced it was discontinuing the service. Also, midwives are not employed by Northern Michigan Regional Hospital.
In Michigan, midwives need to be affiliated with a physician in order to be present at births in a hospital like NMRH; because no local doctors’ offices now offer midwife services, the option is no longer available.
However, parents like Alison and her husband, Jamie, may still choose midwife services; it means they need to deliver the baby at home.
When the couple’s first child, Ethan, 2 1/2, was born, it was under the care of a midwife, Denise Meeks, who worked through another local OB/GYN office. The birth took place at NMRH that time.
“When you have a midwife, it’s like having a friend through your whole pregnancy and labor,” Berry said. “They are there with you, answering every question and relieving every doubt, and in the process increasing confidence in yourself and your birth.”
Berry, an education specialist with the Little Traverse Conservancy, said she particularly appreciates the approach of midwives to not rush to a C-section to remove the baby during prolonged labor, as long as the baby’s health is stable.
In fact, many women who choose home births — still just 1 percent of the U.S. births in total, reports the National Center for Health Statistics — do so to avoid a C-section, a procedure which has been on the rise. Use of C-sections increased by 50 percent nationwide from 1996 to 2006, to nearly one in three births, the NCHS reports.
“I was in labor for 22 hours with my first child, three of those hours were intense pushing,” Berry said. “That’s about the limit with most doctors. But Denise knew I was going to get my baby out. She never let me feel that I couldn’t do what my body was meant to do, deliver my baby.”
When she became pregnant with the couple’s second child in 2008, she again sought out a midwife service; because no local offices offer the option, she found Mulder in Traverse City.
“At first I wasn’t crazy about the idea of traveling to Traverse City every month. And the idea of having a baby mid-winter at home while the midwife was two hours away was a bit daunting,” Berry said. “Not to mention the worry of what to do in the event of an emergency when we live 30 minutes from the hospital. That’s the question everyone asks me.”
But Berry said midwives like Mulder don’t try to take on emergencies on their own, and she and Mulder have agreed to head into Petoskey if complications arise. According to Mulder’s “Dance of Life Midwifery” information, she has attended more than 350 home births over the past 15 years. The option of water birth is available for the woman as well, which can allow the body to relax and lessen the pain of contractions, among other benefits.
Berry, who does plan to utilize a birthing tub, is confident the situation will be as she’s envisioning it, at home, with her family surrounding her, welcoming a new life into the world.
“That’s the great thing about having a home birth. The environment is comforting and familiar, not sterile and cold. You know everyone in the room with you, and all immediate procedures for the baby are done while he’s resting on mom,” said Berry. “ … There’s no pressure to hurry out of the laboring bed and be shuttled to a new location, all the while not knowing who has your baby or what they are doing to him.”
Controversy over home births
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has had an official policy against home births since 1975, and this year it asked the American Medical Association to adopt a similar statement. The AMA agreed, and in June 2008 also condemned home births.
“The AMA supports a woman’s right to make an informed decision regarding her delivery and to choose a licensed health care provider” and “stresses that the safest setting for delivering a baby is in the hospital or a birthing center within a hospital complex,” Dr. Steven Stack, an AMA board member, said in a statement published recently in the New York Times. “Serious complications can arise with little or no warning even among women with low-risk pregnancies.”
The Big Push For Midwives, a national campaign to grant licenses for home-birth Certified Professional Midwives in all 50 states, countered: “It’s unclear what penalties the AMA will seek to impose on women who choose to give birth at home, either for religious, cultural or financial reasons — or just because they didn’t make it to the hospital in time,” said Susan Jenkins, legal counsel for The Big Push for Midwives 2008 campaign. “What we do know, however, is that any state that enacts such a law will immediately find itself in court, since a law dictating where a woman must give birth would be a clear violation of fundamental rights to privacy and other freedoms currently protected by the U.S. Constitution.”
For Berry, the issue isn’t one of controversy but rather of choice and comfort, for her, her family and her newborn.
“If you believe in yourself and have confidence in yourself, you can get through it. It is pain that your body is built to deal with as women,” Berry said. “I’m not more brave than any other woman. All I did was educate myself. Women should know they have a choice.”
Editor’s Note: The News-Review plans a follow-up article after Berry gives birth in late winter. Check back in the March Health section to learn about the family’s newest addition and how the home birth process went, along with more information about midwife services.
Is it safe?
The World Health Organization has officially stated that “it has never been scientifically proven that the hospital is a safer place than home for a woman who has had an uncomplicated pregnancy to have her baby. Studies of planned home births in developed countries with women who have had uncomplicated pregnancies have shown sickness and death rates for mother and baby equal to or better than hospital birth statistics for women with uncomplicated pregnancies.”
However, having a home birth isn’t for everyone. If your pregnancy has been classified as being complicated in any way, then you may be better off giving birth at a hospital. If you are in the majority of women who are in good health and are having a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy, then a home birth is an option for you.
Source: www.storknet.com
What does it involve?
Home birth occurs when a woman labors and delivers a child at home, rather than the labor and delivery ward of a hospital or birthing center. Home births are generally attended by a midwife, but are sometimes attended by general practitioners, other medical professionals or doulas. Some mothers choose to give birth without any medical professional present — this is generally known as an “unassisted home birth” or “freebirth.” Painkillers, including epidurals, aren’t generally used or available during a homebirth.
No state prosecutes mothers for giving birth outside of a hospital.
Source: wikipedia.com