Eng. 102
Feb. 11, 2013
Home births Vs. Hospital births
One of the first and most important decisions expected couples face is where they will deliver their baby. Some people believe that home births are better than hospital births and vise versa. A home birth is an attended or an unattended childbirth in a non-clinical setting, typically using natural childbirth methods, that takes place in a residence rather than in a hospital or a birth center, and usually attended by a midwife or lay attendant with expertise in managing home births. Midwives have helped women deliver babies since the beginning of history and there are references to midwives in ancient manuscripts and in the Bible. Even today, midwives are the primary health care providers in most countries where birth is an integral part of family life and in Europe midwives assist at more than 70% of normal vaginal births ("Birth"). The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in 1990 that birth was actually safer for mothers and babies when utilizing midwifery for pregnancy and childbirth ("Birth"). Hospital births are births where doctors manage the delivery with their patients in a hospital. Giving birth at home was the only option for most women throughout most of history and continues to be the most common way to give birth in many parts of the world. In the 1760s, traveling physicians began to attend births of upper-class women in the United States. In the United States today, most women give birth in a hospital, attended by an obstetrician. However, up until around 1900, births usually took place at home. In the late twentieth century, a few women have begun to return to tradition by choosing to have their babies at home, attended by midwives. There are many different sides to this controversy. Home births have positive factors such as they are said to be more comfortable and cheaper. They consist of fewer injuries, infections and deaths. Hospital births are less painful. They are the safest...