Unassisted Childbirth
Unassisted childbirth is the deliberate delivery of a baby without the presence and intervention of someone trained in medicine or midwifery. The term does not apply to those births where a woman was unable to get to a medical facility on time or when an emergency unexpectedly disrupts a pregnancy.
When women choose unassisted childbirth as their first choice of delivery methods, they are often choosing this option under the belief that childbirth is one of the most intimate physiological events in a person's life and is no reason for medical intervention. For these mothers, childbirth is a natural process, not a medical situation.
In most cases of unassisted childbirth in the industrialized nations of the world, a woman will seek prenatal medical care to determine her own and her baby's health status, ruling out the likelihood of any complications which would warrant professional medical treatment at the time of delivery. Close attention is paid to the mother's health, exercise, and nutritional intake throughout the pregnancy to better ensure a safe delivery at home.
Many couples choose unassisted childbirth as an extension of their commitment to each other as a couple. By working together to extend their marital bond through the birth of a family, a new dimension of intimacy is brought into the marriage.
Other couples choose unassisted childbirth because of the belief that medical intervention, with its instruments and drugs, causes more harm than benefit. These couples prefer to follow the natural, private process of delivery instead of giving birth in a more public delivery room, crowded with strangers.
Delivering a child in the comfort and privacy of one's own home is another reason many women choose unassisted childbirth over a hospital delivery. Some people just don't like hospitals and others prefer more personal space during this very intimate experience.
In Australia, the number of women choosing unassisted childbirth is on the rise, thanks to recent governmental policies that closed small maternity units scattered throughout rural Australia. Large, centralized maternity hospitals have been established instead in many of the country's cities. The extreme distances that must be traveled by many Australian women to get to such facilities makes it almost impossible and certainly undesirable for a growing number of women who are choosing to deliver their babies in the comfort and convenience of home instead.
Lack of medical coverage for midwife services is another reason often given for choosing unassisted childbirth. The presence of a midwife brings comfort to many women choosing to deliver at home but the added expense can be prohibitive.