Labouring at home for as long as possible is the best option in any uncomplicated birth and most importantly, your partner can labour with you. Some of the most beautiful parts of labour occur at home, watching movies, lying in your bed together standing under the shower or walking the block.
If we think of birth as an act of intimacy, like making love with your partner, you can start to understand the benefits of labouring at home. The hormones that you make during love making is called Oxytocin, this is the same hormone that our body produces in birth. In fact, your body will make the highest levels of oxytocin it has ever made during birth. It builds progressively during labour, just like it does during intimacy with your partner. Therefore, labouring at home where you feel safe, supported and unobserved will assist your labour to progress in a more straightforward, smooth and positive manner.
If you arrive at hospital once labour has fully progressed it is harder to disrupt the flow of oxytocin and your labour will continue to progress as it did at home, rather than stalling or stopping all together. Women who labour confidently at home tend to show up at the hospital and breathe their baby’s out quickly. This significantly reduces the potential for interventions and pressure to ‘move things along’ from care providers. As you learn to manage your surges with movement and other relaxation techniques you will continue to use those techniques when you arrive at hospital.
If you would like to build your confidence in staying at home, click here and come and join The Positive Birth Program, I recommend starting classes somewhere between 20 – 32 weeks pregnant.
