Home birth

We offer the option of home birth to all suitable women. The Highfield Birth Team, supported by our Community Midwives, will support and care for you throughout your pregnancy and labour if you wish to give birth at home, enabling you to remain with your family and in familiar, comfortable surroundings. Home birth has been shown to be a safe option, particularly if have you given birthto a baby with no complications before.

We can provide a home birthing pool, free of charge, if you wish to use it for pain relief or a water birth. You will need to purchase some equipment yourself, but your midwife will advise you what is needed. All the equipment will be delivered to your home when you are 36 weeks pregnant and is usually removed within 24 hours of your baby being born. Please speak to your midwife if you are considering a home birth.

What are the advantages of home birth?

You are more likely to:

• Have a normal birth
• Fewer interventions
• Feel relaxed, comfortable and in control in your own home
• Be able to labour and/or birth in water
• Sleep in your own bed after your baby is born
• Be with your family - not having to leave your partner or other children
• Avoid worries about travelling into hospital, paying for parking or waiting to be discharged
• Be able to eat what you want when you want it

What are the disadvantages of home birth?

Occasionally complications develop in labour that could mean you need to transfer to hospital, either in your own transport or via ambulance.

The Birth Place Study (2011) found that this occurred with:

• Approximately 45 in every 100 women expecting their first baby
• Approximately 12 in every 100 women expecting their second or subsequent baby

The vast majority of transfers are for non-emergency reasons and include slower than expected labours and waters breaking and not being clear.

Who can have their baby at home?

In 2011 a large study called ‘The Birthplace Study’ showed that for women who are healthy and having a straightforward pregnancy, there is a very low risk of problems for their baby, whether they plan to give birth at home or in hospital.

We encourage all women who have had a baby before and who do not have any additional concerns or complications to consider having their baby at home. Research has shown that these women have better outcomes at home and the risk of a serious problem for the baby is the same at home as it is in hospital. Furthermore, women who planned to give birth at home had the lowest rates of interventions compared with those giving birth in a midwifery-led unit or in hospital.

Is there a difference if this is my first baby?

The Birthplace study concluded that for women having their first baby, there was a slightly higher chance of their baby having a serious problem at home compared to a hospital birth. 991 out of 1000 babies born at home to first time mothers were born healthy and well compared with 995 out of a 1000 babies born in hospital.

It also found that women expecting their first baby and planning to give birth at home were less likely to need a caesarean or instrumental birth such as forceps, an episiotomy, need an epidural for pain relief or need to have their labour speeded up with a hormone drip.

They were also more likely to use water for pain relief, use fewer forms of pain relief, breastfeed their babies for longer and reported a better overall birth experience.