If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you are investigating home birth and/or compassionate prenatal care. If so, you landed at the right place. Home Birth With Love is the midwifery practice of Leah Marinelli. This site is where you can access her expertise, as well as information and resources for your pregnancy and coming delivery. It’s my pleasure to gather and share information with other expectant parents. I won’t pretend to be anything other than what I am: a new mom who is happy and satisfied with my experience with my home birth midwife.
A year ago I was pregnant with my first baby and began my home birth odyssey. Interestingly, it was my husband who first suggested home birth. He had several friends who had trained as midwives years earlier. As a single guy he’d gotten it in his head that home birth was “the way to go”. His encouragement led me to investigate. My research lead me to Leah Marinelli, who became our midwife and friend.
On this site I will share links and research from experts, midwives, organizations, and parents like us. Come back often to check for new material. And call Leah anytime to consult about your specific questions and desires.
In the meantime, take these three bits of advice with you:
1. Home birth is SAFE.
When we first started telling friends and family that we were planning a homebirth, we got a lot of raised eyebrows. “Is that safe?” “Aren’t you putting your baby’s life at risk?” Some people thought we were selfishly choosing a homebirth for some trendy reason. Some suspected it was because we couldn’t afford “regular” medicine. All of that was far from the truth. Statistically, homebirth is just as safe as hospital birth, when attended by qualified midwives or doctors.
There is much more to be said on the subject of safety, and soon you’ll find more than enough resources and links here at nymidwife.com. For the time being, here is some of what the World Health Organization has to say about the safety of home birth versus hospital birth: “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.”
Or consider this quote from Dr. David Stewart, “Every study published shows midwives to be safer than doctors. Every study. No exceptions. If your physician disagrees with this, challenge him or her to produce the data that supports otherwise. They won’t be able to do it. Such data does not and never did exist. In a nutshell, that is the strength of the case for midwifery. It is unanimous.”
2. Home birth is more common than you might expect.
Over 90% of the world’s population were born at home. Hospital birth is a relatively recent development. Most people assume its for safety that we give birth in hospitals; in reality its because ever since the automobile made local travel easy, it made more economic sense to perform deliveries in one central location where one physician could attend many at once. Outside of North America, home birth is a widely accepted way to deliver healthy babies.
3. Home birth is a statistically less painful, and emotionally more intimate start to your child’s life outside the womb.
Studies comparing womens’ perceived pain levels showed a significantly less painful experience at home. Most likely this is due to the comfort of familiar surroundings and ability to move about freely. In one study both husbands and wives were asked to rate the experience, the overwhelming conclusion was that home birth was more pleasant and less painful.
Hospital birth tends to treat mother and baby as patients in need of medical care. Home birth allows mother and baby to complete a natural human process in a simple, healthy way.
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