WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CALL THE MIDWIFE
“When I was a student midwife in the Eighties, home births were fairly commonplace,” says Pam Wild, author of The
Happy Birth Book, and the midwife who TV presenter Davina Mccall credits for her three “amazing” home births. “However, between then and now, birth has become increasingly medicalised.”
Wild says it is fear that puts most mothers-to-be off home births: “Labour can change very quickly and you can go from everything being fine to a serious problem with bleeding or the baby’s heartbeat. However, midwives are very skilled, can recognise potential problems and have the equipment to deal with them. The only thing we can’t do at home is an epidural. Even at a home birth, they have equipment that can deal with a problem until an ambulance arrives.
“People often ask, what if you have a real emergency at home and need to be rushed off to have a C-section, like you see in hospital? But that’s much less likely to happen at home: in a hospital they do certain things, like bursting your waters, to speed the process along. At home, they don’t do that and the midwife is trained to spot situations that may result in a section. Very rarely you see somebody from a home birth getting rushed in for a C-section.”
Wild says that home births may not be right for everybody, and a mother with a twin or triplet pregnancy, gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, or one who is aged over 35 or is past their due date, may have to speak to their doctor before deciding whether a home birth is right for them. However, mothers will be told about the risks well before their due date and if they change their mind during a home birth, they can still go into hospital.
“Ultimately it should be up to the mother how and where she gives birth,” says Wild, “but there are situations where she may be advised against it. And sadly the resources aren’t always there: sometimes a midwife isn’t available for a home birth.
“We all hear about the horror stories of home births, but there are risks to giving birth in hospital, too, where there’s often a lot more intervention.
“Each stage is medically managed in hospital, whereas at home there is more of a ‘wait and see’ approach.”
Midwives are very skilled and can recognise any potential problems