Resources - Articles and Links

Choosing a Homebirth
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/homebirthchoice.asp?q=homebirth+choice

Choosing a Certified Nurse-Midwife
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/prenatalhealth/322.html

The World Health Organization’s position on midwifery, birth center births and homebirths
“These recommendations point to the midwife as the basic health care provider in obstetrics delivering care in small health centres, in villages and at home, and perhaps also in hospitals (WHO 1994). Midwives are the most appropriate primary health care provider to be assigned to the care of normal birth.”
“An extensive report about birth centre care in the USA described care in alternative birth centres in and outside hospitals (Rooks et al 1989). Experiments with midwife-managed care in hospitals in Britain, Australia and Sweden showed that women's satisfaction with such care was much higher than with standard care. The number of interventions was generally lower, especially obstetric analgesia, induction and augmentation of labour. The obstetric outcome did not significantly differ from consultant-led care, though in some trials perinatal mortality tended to be slightly higher in the midwife-led models of care (Flint et al 1989, MacVicar et al 1993, Waldenström and Nilsson 1993, Hundley et al 1994, Rowley et al 1995, Waldenström et al 1996).”
“The Netherlands is a developed country with an official home birth system. The incidence of home deliveries differs considerably between regions, and even between large cities. A study of perinatal mortality showed no correlation between regional hospitalisation at delivery and regional perinatal mortality (Treffers and Laan 1986). A study conducted in the province of Gelderland, compared the "obstetric result" of home births and hospital births. The results suggested that for primiparous women with a low-risk pregnancy a home birth was as safe as a hospital birth. For low-risk multiparous women the result of a home birth was significantly better than the result of a hospital birth (Wiegers et al 1996). There was no evidence that this system of care for pregnant women can be improved by increasing medicalization of birth (Buitendijk 1993).”
“So where then should a woman give birth? It is safe to say that a woman should give birth in a place she feels is safe, and at the most peripheral level at which appropriate care is feasible and safe (FIGO 1992). For a low-risk pregnant woman this can be at home, at a small maternity clinic or birth centre in town or perhaps at the maternity unit of a larger hospital. However, it must be a place where all the attention and care are focused on her needs and safety, as close to home and her own culture as possible. If birth does take place at home or in a small peripheral birth centre, contingency plans for access to a properly-staffed referral centre should form part of the antenatal preparations.”

The Visible Embryo- following your baby’s growth in utero from conception to birth
http://www.visibleembryo.com/baby/index.html

Is Homebirth Safe?
http://www.parentsplace.com/expert/birthguru/articles/0,10335,166371_183241,00.html

Fish Can’t See Water: The Need to Humanize Birth by Marsden Wagner, perinatologist, neonatologist and former Regional Officer for Maternal and Fetal Health of the World Health Organization
http://www.birth.hu/cikkek_fish_cant_see_water.htm

Advantages and Disadvantages of Home Birth, Birth Center Birth, and Hospital Birth
http://www.texas-midwife.com/choices.htm