yungerman1,
Again, giving birth is sakonos nefashos- which is why you are allowed to be mechalel shabbos to drive to the hospital.
So what? Should I drive my family to the hospital if our furnace goes out on Shabbos in January? Where have I said that melacha should not be done for a woman in labor?
Lets define “preferable”. To the comfort of the mother- maybe for some, and only if they dont want any pain relief medication.
Pain medication dramatically increases the likelihood of cesarean section in the hospital. C-section increases the risk for maternal mortality. U.S. is 41st out of 171 nations in maternal mortality rates, and the rate is increasing dramatically (along with the C-section rate). In fact, it has quadrupled. At some hospitals the C-section rate tops 50%. And if you think, “well, C-sections are better for baby, at any rate!” think again. For a singleton presenting head down at full term, the risk of neonatal death is 0.62 per 1000 when Hashem’s designed delivery is used. That risk jumps to 1.77 with a C-section. Did our Creator really design us so poorly that almost half of women need to be cut open to get the baby out? Also, 66% of “emergency” cesareans are performed during the daytime (e.g., normal business hours – most convenient for the OB). Why?
So a women who decides on a home birth, is most definitely increasing the risk to herself,
The exact opposite seems to be the case.
and exponentially so to the infant.
Exponentially? Really? Not even Health made that claim.
Here’s the results of a study called Outcomes of Intended Home Births in Nurse-Midwifery Practice: A Prospective Descriptive Study, which was published in Volume 92, No. 3 of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:
Of 1404 enrolled women intending home births,
6% miscarried, terminated the pregnancy or changed plans.
Another 7.4% became ineligible for home birth prior to the
onset of labor at term due to the development of perinatal
problems and were referred for planned hospital birth. Of
those women beginning labor with the intention of delivering
at home, 102 (8.3%) were transferred to the hospital
during labor. Ten mothers (0.8%) were transferred to the
hospital after delivery, and 14 infants (1.1%) were transferred
after birth. Overall intrapartal fetal and neonatal
mortality for women beginning labor with the intention of
delivering at home was 2.5 per 1000. For women actually
delivering at home, intrapartal fetal and neonatal mortality
was 1.8 per 1000.
By comparison, the overall neonatal mortality rate for whites (the rate is significantly higher for blacks) in New York in 2007 was 3.27 per 1000 births. In Maryland it was 3.54, New Jersey 2.86. For women intending to deliver at home under the care of certified nurse midwives, including those who were transferred to hospitals for delivery due to problems with either mother or baby, the rate was 2.5.
Not sure where this tripling (or exponential increase) of the infant mortality rate is coming from. Probably home births that are not properly supervised, which we all agree is a bad idea.