Unassisted Birth
Giving Birth Without Assistance is the Latest Natural Birth Trend
Unassisted birth is getting attention as more women are seeking a way to have a natural childbirth without excessive, and often unnecessary, intervention.
With Cesarean sections at an all-time high, women are coming up with a number of alternative options to avoid Cesarean births. The current level of medical interventions has led to almost one third of American births ending in a C-section. This is far above the level that the World Health Organization deems a necessary level. The WHO recommends that no nation have a percentage above 10 to 15 percent. Unfortunately, the rate in the U.S. and other industrialized nations has been continued to climb year after year. To combat the increasing number of medical interventions, many women have turned to homebirths with midwives and unassisted births.
No Medical Intervention
Without any medical intervention, women are giving birth in their homes and in birthing centers, trusting in their own bodies to complete the task. Though there are only informal studies on the rates of complications during unassisted births, for women with no prior medical problems and no history of complicated births, the risks have not been high enough to prompt any legislation against them. Hospital births have been statistically shown to add to the number of complications and to raise the maternal and infant mortality rates over babies born at home. The U.S., with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world, is also infamous for the most medical interventions during birth and one of the highest Cesarean rates.
Though there are no medical interventions and no midwife in attendance during an unassisted birth, the birthing mother can choose anyone she likes in the birthing room. These witnesses can be as involved as the mother wishes. The main guideline is that no one present should tell the mother what to do or when it's time to push. Her body is her own guide and leads the birth alone. Because complications can arise, however, a birthing mother should have a doctor or midwife on call and should be prepared to transport to a hospital for further care.
Not Recommended for VBACs
Because there is a very small chance of uterine rupture during a vaginal birth after a Cesarean (VBAC), midwives and doctors will generally recommend that a woman seeking a VBAC do so under medical supervision. The risk of a rupture is extremely slim at less than 1 percent, but the risk does exist and complications from a rupture can be fatal. For this reason, and because of the many lawsuits that have resulted, most midwives will not take on VBAC cases and do not recommend a homebirth in that situation. Of course, unassisted and attended home VBACs do occur successfully, but they carry distinct risks that other births don't have.
The unassisted birth trend has not yet resulted in published formal studies, but the data on homebirths performed with a midwife clearly points to the practice's safety in low-risk births. This study shows that a homebirth by a low-risk mother is as safe as a low-risk mother having a hospital birth. Some of those mothers did have to transfer to the hospital because of complications. Whether the mother has an attending midwife or not is legally her decision, but some form of attendant is generally accepted as being a safer alternative than giving birth without one. Many medical professionals have gone on record stating that the practice is unsafe because of the risk of complications that may potentially be fatal.
