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It’s odd to think that society often considers us strange if we consider having a child anywhere but in a hospital because “natural childbirth” used to be the only method of child birth. A home birth was anything but special. The situation is different today. Early hospitals often had higher infant mortality rates and more moms who died in child birth, even 100 years ago, in far larger numbers than moms attended to at home with midwives.

Clearly, medical practice has changed much since the first days of labor and delivery in some of those first hospitals, but some things truly haven’t. When you line up all the statistics on home birth versus hospital births, natural births are still safer for the majority of moms and babies.

There are, of course some instances when women are better off having a hospital birth. This can be because the birth is high risk or because mom is expecting multiple births. High risk births may mean a preemie baby or a mom with a defined illness such as diabetes or preeclampsia. A home birth might also not be the best choice if mom has high blood pressure. For the majority of moms, however, home birth is a good choice.

There are several reasons a woman may choose to give birth at home. They have more freedom to pace themselves or walk around, wheras in the hospital they are typically expected to stay in bed. Being confined in such a way often itself causes a delay in labor. If the hospital is short staffed, they may not permit visitors in the labor ward. For example in some spring months, when the risk of Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is higher, visitors are often limited to adults only.

Another risk to be considered when going into hospital is infection. Infection is one of the leading causes of complications and even death in our hospitals. In fact, one researcher says, somewhat jokingly, that the leading cause of death in America is hospitals. But in all seriousness, hospital stays can put both mom’s and baby’s health at risk as well as limiting birthing options.

There are other reasons to consider natural births. An article published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 states that planned home births for low risk women are as safe and are subject to less medical intervention as similar risk hospital births. This, of course, really raises the question as to how many hospital procedures are performed that really aren’t needed.

On balance, natural childbirth seems to be the better option and safer than giving birth in a hospital for low risk women who want control over the birth process and to have her family around to support her.