Awareness of home births increasing in UK

25 Mar 2008

Increased knowledge and awareness of home births is continuing to grow among UK mums-to-be, according to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

With the rise in celebrity home births helping to promote the option to women across the UK, more and more expectant mothers are considering wider birthing alternatives to a hospital labour.

Mervi Jokinen, practice and standards development advisor for the RCM, said: "The awareness is definitely increasing – there have been some celebrities who have had babies at home and I think that has brought it into the general public.

"Also midwives are discussing home births as a feasible option for women to choose… most women associate birth with hospitals."

In 2006, the National Childbirth Trust issued a statement revealing a 7% rise in the number of women giving birth at home in 2004.

Ms Jokinen said that a home birth "is very supportive of normal labour and the normal physiology of labour" but added that ultimately, deciding whether or not to have a home birth is "a very individual decision".

For some couples a home birth can prove to be a "much more relaxed" experience and mothers often feel "more in control" at home than they do in hospital.

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