Home births grow in popularity
Home births are on the rise – and the pandemic has played a large part in the phenomenon – but some women are missing out.
Home birth proponents say pregnant women have concerns around Covid-19 restrictions limiting the access of birthing partners and whānau, are worried about catching Covid-19, and feel apprehensive about hospital staffing levels. However, because of midwife shortages not all women who want to give birth at home have the option.
Home Birth Aotearoa cochairperson Bobbie-Jane Cooke has seen an uptick in inquiries over the past two years and said most regional groups’ birth pool rentals were on the rise.
But the group’s social media rep reported 4-12 women a week could not find home birth midwives to support them, particularly over the past eight months, with numbers peaking in January. ‘‘Home birth is amazing and we want it for whoever wants that, but for some women it isn’t an option,’’ Cooke said.
Some women did not have safe, warm homes to give birth in, or lived in overcrowded houses.
For those women, Home Birth Aotearoa and regional home birth groups try to help them find a home birth midwife who will take the ‘‘home birth philosophy’’ into hospital.
An added complication was the closure of primary birthing units, while other birthing units had reduced hours, Cooke said.
Home Birth Aotearoa stressed the importance of midwives and their need to be paid fairly.
Cooke said there were several reasons why women were opting for home births. A ‘‘massive’’ one was visitor restrictions on birthing partners and on having extended whānau present.
Others were afraid of catching Covid-19 in hospital, or were worried about how staffing shortages and ‘‘overwhelmed hospitals’’ would impact their care. These concerns led to some women who would not have otherwise considered giving birth at home to do so, like Cooke’s sister who gave birth in the first level 4 lockdown and then in level 3 the following year.
Nelson woman Elisabeth Schmidt is looking forward to her second home birth in midAugust. A home birth, she said, allowed her to ‘‘be in her own space’’, to sleep in her own bed, shower in her own shower, and keep the labour as normal as possible without slowing down.
She also likes that she doesn’t have to make arrangements for childcare for her daughter while she is in labour, and that she always has the same people checking in on her.
Photographer Lisa Trusler will be attending the arrival of the Schmidts’ latest addition and said about half the births she documents were at home, where people tended to be ‘‘more relaxed’’.
Schmidt is one of a growing number of Nelsonians choosing to home birth. Midwife Sian Redman said she had seen a ‘‘massive uptake’’ in home births – ‘‘we are probably near 30% now’’. She said midwives were trained to do home births and prepared accordingly, carrying and checking equipment for normal births and for emergencies.
NZ College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy said that through Covid-19, the college had seen an increased demand for home births anecdotally but it had not seen any published data to quantify that yet.
She believed that data, once published, would ‘‘certainly show a spike in home births’’, particularly through the first lockdown.
The situation with primary birthing units was ‘‘fluctuating’’ because of workforce shortages, she said. ‘‘In the main, midwives will do everything they can to accommodate women’s choice, and they are highly supportive of women’s choice if they want a home birth.’’
Eddy encouraged women unable to find midwives to contact the College of Midwives, which runs a national midwife finding website.