5 Biggest Home Birth Myths
Many families using our Hypnobirthing course go on to plan a homebirth.. but occasionally people are discouraged or warned against the ideas using some pretty spectacular myths! These are probably the top 5 most common (but not the only) bits of utter nonsense I've heard about homebirth over the years- has anyone told them to you?
MYTH 1) You can't use a birth pool if you live upstairs because you might fall through the ceiling.
Now, if you have a wardrobe full of clothes.. a bed with storage in.. a bath tub.. or could manage around 8 adults in the room you're planning to use without panicking.. you can hold a birth pool! This is NOT A THING!
MYTH 2) You can't give birth in your bedroom if it's upstairs incase you need paramedics.
Please! Paramedics are perfectly capable of bringing someone down a set or two (or 5) of stairs! Does everyone having a heart attack have to ensure they're doing it on the ground floor from now on too? Again.. not a thing! (For what it's worth, we ONLY have an upstairs- we live in a first floor maisonette- and had a home birth no problem!)
MYTH 3) We may need to knife/slash the pool in an emergency.
ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE. If an emergency occurred whereby you couldn't safely get yourself out of the pool, it's likely you birth partner would step straight in to help scoop you up. Or at the very least your head may simply need supporting out of the water in the short term. The chances of this kind of situation ever arising are incredibly slim. But flooding your entire lounge isn't going to improve the situation.
MYTH 4) It's less safe if it's your first baby
Some OLD (12 year old) research suggested it may be every so slightly less safe to give birth at home for your first baby. But a much larger (500,000 people) review of research done in 2020 showed that home is AS SAFE as anywhere else in terms of outcomes for babies and MUCH SAFER for people giving birth (in the 'low risk' population). If you want the paper- The Lancet 2020 Homebirth.
MYTH 5) You can't give birth at home if you're 'high risk'
Actually, you can do whatever you want. There are circumstances where hospital birth might be the safer option, but it's never quite as black and white as it seems. Research (the Birth Place Study 2011) showed that intervention rates and complications for baby are higher over all in women with complex pregnancies.. but it also showed that this was reduced out of the hospital environment. So basically- if you compare 'high risk' with 'low risk' women both giving birth at home- yes the rate of complexities at home are higher in the 'high risk' group. But compare 'like for like' (I mean, you either HAVE complexities of pregnancy or you don't- so this is the important bit), we STILL see lower rates of intervention at home. The flaw to the research was that all 'high risk' pregnancies were grouped together (age/bmi/vbac/diabetes etc).. and the evidence around each 'risk factor' has varying levels of credibility (and in a lot of cases there is no quality evidence at all).
If homebirth is on you radar and you'd like to learn a bit more, have a listen to our podcast episode on it here!
Whenever you're ready, here's 3 ways I can help you to feel confident and informed before the birth of your baby.
1. Listen to the Podcast
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2. Join the Online Course
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3. Join me in person
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