You heard me right, there’s a white woman home birth extravaganza and you’re invited!  Actually, no matter what color you are, you’re invited!  All you need for the extravaganza is a live pregnant woman, a house and a desire to deliver a baby in it!

Home-birth setup

Home Birth Setup!

Statistics show a growing concern about the hospital birthing procedures, and rightfully so.  In the great United States of America, we rank 50th in the entire world for maternal mortality.  Yep, that’s right.  Mothers dying while giving birth.  It’s not widely known, but the data speaks for itself.  (Maternal Mortality reference.)  The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 46th in the world.  (C.I.A. reference.)  It’s pretty appalling, don’t you think?

I love my wife and I want to keep her around for a few more years.  We also plan on having a few more Gavins.  So, this article (see bottom of page) interests me, because it pertains to my wife and future children.

I despise some hospital birthing practices as I witnessed firsthand both the good and the bad sides of a hospital birth.  My own childbirth experience was beginning to turn into a science experiment before I had a “come to Tebow” talk with the staff. There were way too many interventions “being offered” to Steph in labor.  (But, that’s another story soon to be told.)  So, naturally I understand the desire of a home birth, especially if the mother and fetus are in good health.  (I would also be heavily in favor of a home birth for our next child.)  Apparently, white women are leading the charge toward more home births in the U.S.  There’s been an increase in out-of-hospital births by 29% between 2004 and 2009.  The major party working the non-traditional (I hate how the unconventional birthing practice in America has become the “traditional” method) birthing angle are, as the article title states, non-Hispanic white women.  They’ve accounted for 36% of the total increase in home births in that 6 year span.

Seeing as how I married a white woman, the chance for me getting our second baby home-birthed is better than average.  So, I feel pretty good about my odds.  (Obviously, this only makes sense from a statistical perspective…and in my own mind.)

There are good reasons for wanting a home birth.  Control of the experience, no one forcing their agenda on you, privacy, intimacy, makes for good story, etc.  Having a home birth can be safer than a hospital birth, but make sure the mother-to-be is a low-risk pregnancy before you grab that leather strap and bottle of whiskey to hunker down in the trenches with your old lady.  And do your homework.  Guys need to understand the tools, tricks, and risks of the L&D trade before they have their own home birth extravaganza.  You can’t just toss back a beer and cheer from the couch.  You’ve got to be involved.  (You can be the hero that Enrique Iglesias sings about in that song…)

Anyhow, if you’ve made it this far into my article, you’ve either got a high tolerance for number crunching, or you’re serious about making sure your ball and chain gets the best that healthcare has to offer.  If you’re looking for the latter, you may want to move to Singapore.  Just kidding, you may want to man up and learn about what you can do to increase the odds of your family’s next successful birth.  Get informed.

Article I was reading:

CDC Home Births on the Rise

There’s tons of information out there on natural birthing methods.  Google it!

 

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