Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Birth Place

The place a woman chooses to birth can influence the quality of her birth experience.
For centuries all babies were bom at home. Beginning in the early 1900's birth moved from the home to the hospital. Women became ignorant of the birth process since they did not witness the birth themselves because they were usually put to sleep. Today women have many choices. Birth can take place in the hospital in a delivery room or a birthing room or birth can take place in an out-of-hospital birthing center or at home.

The hospital is the most common place to give birth in our country. Most women assume that the hospital is the only safe place to give birth. Hospitals, however, view birth as a "high risk" event and believe that all available technology should be used to prevent a complication. The focus may be on machines and monitoring rather than on the laboring woman.

Some women feel safest in the hospital where the physician, emergency equipment and personnel are right at hand. Other women prefer a birth center or home where they feel they have more freedom to create a birth environment that is uniquely their own.

The popularity of natural childbirth and the influence of many expectant parents who wanted to be present together for birth and to have contact with the baby afrer the birth has convinced hospitals and physicians to allow more parental participation and control in the birth process.

- to read the rest, go to WOMEN'S HEALTH AND BIRTH CARE

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