Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home: A Practical Guide for Midwives

Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home describes and discusses the main challenges and issues that midwives and maternity services encounter when preparing for and attending a home birth. To ensure that a home birth is a real option for women, midwives need to be able to believe in a woman’s ability to give birth at home and to promote this birth option, providing evidence-based information about benefits and risks.

This practical guide will help midwives to have the necessary skills, resources and confidence to support homebirth. The book includes:

• the present birth choices a woman has
• the implications homebirth has upon midwifery practice
• how midwives can prepare and support women and their families
• the midwife’s role and responsibilities
• national and local policies, guidelines and available resources
• pain management options

With a range of recent home birth case studies brought together in the final chapter, this accessible text provides a valuable insight into those considering homebirth. Supporting Women to Give Birth at Home will be of interest to students studying issues around normal birth and will be an important resource for clinically based midwives, in particular community based midwives, home birth midwifery teams, independent midwives, and all who are interested in homebirth as a genuine choice.

Mary Steen is Professor of Midwifery at the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of Chester, UK. She has practiced as a midwife for 23 years and worked in a community setting since 1994, attending numerous homebirths. She has recently helped to develop a successful community-based health and well-being programme intended to increase the numbers of active births and homebirths.