Most Women give birth in a hospital, but more and more are interested in a home birth.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of these options?
Hospital birth is the standard option which most women choose, and why do they choose this option?
Well firstly because they feel secure and in safe hands with the hospital staff all around them, the nurses are there, the doctors are there and the midwives are there.
All the medical facilities are in the hospital should they be needed.
All the medicine and drugs are there, painkillers etc.
Other pregnant women are there also, so they are not alone.
And the most important point is, that if there are complications with the pregnancy and something goes wrong, then they couldn't be in a better place to be helped, unless of course it is a bad hospital!
So what are the Disadvantages?
Not so much you might think as the advantages, but there is a few.
The hospital might be far away from her home and it could take a long time to reach, especially when the woman is in labour.
And if she has to go home again and come back again and again to the hospital, this can be quite an ordeal sometimes.
Also giving birth in a room full of strangers and having to stay overnight in the hospital afterwards, when the woman may well prefer to be in her own home.
So let's talk about the home birth option.
Still only a small percentage of women choose this option, but many more would like to.
Why?
Well, they get to give birth in the comfort of their own home.
It's more of a personal experience surrounded by family, not a cold, clinical, maybe old hospital.
The pregnant woman doesn't need to travel far, it's more comfortable for her with less interruptions to her personal life.
So what about the disadvantages you might ask?
Firstly she might have a midwife or even a doctor on call at home with her, but she doesn't have the experience of the whole medical team.
She does not have all the medical facilities at home, which would be available to her in a hospital.
If there is a complication with the pregnancy and it's a difficult pregnancy, there is no operating room to perform surgery, and all the medicine and medical team are not in her home to help with the birth.
If something does go wrong, she could lose the baby.
