About Nicole

       Birth is an amazing life-changing and defining task in the experience of a woman. It is not without pain, stress nor an incredible test of endurance. A satisfying birth experience leaves a woman stronger and more confident for her new role as mother. This satisfying birth experience, as God designed, is facilitated by a few simple ingredients, as supported by the professional literature (22). These include:
  • Continuous Presence
    of a supportive person has shown to decrease labor time, decrease the chance of having a Caesarean Section and increase confidence.
  • Freedom of Movement helps women cope with pain, decreases epidural use and encourages fetal descent and proper positioning into the pelvis.
  • Adequate Nutrition and Fluid
    gives laboring women the proper fuel they need for their hard work and keeps the contractions strong and regular.
  • Upright or Side-lying Positions
    for birth help women avoid tissue trauma and facilitate a shorter pushing phase of labor.
  • Immediate Skin to Skin Contact
    with the baby after birth increases breast feeding success for the weeks and months to follow.
These basic needs are met for women who choose to birth at home with a midwife, both well known for safety and excellent birth outcomes.
       However, a typical hospital experience often contradicts what nature and research support as beneficial, while also including routine procedures, which are harmful to women. For example, a woman laboring in the hospital will more likely experience the following:
  • Restricted Movement, secondary to IV’s, continuous fetal monitoring equipment and staff discouragement of walking.
  • Prohibition of Food and Drink, exhausting women of their strength during the hard work of labor.
  • Birth Flat on the Back can cause ineffective pushing and birth trauma to tissues.
  • Separation of Mother and Infant immediately after birth with formula or water feeding by staff increases breastfeeding failure for the weeks and months to come.
  • Routine Episiotomy can cause deep extension of tissue trauma and result in life long fecal incontinence.
  • Routine Electronic Fetal Monitoring has shown in numerous studies to provide no improvement in baby’s health but significantly increase a woman’s chance of having a C-section.
  • Induction of Labor without medical indication often fails to dilate the cervix and results in C-section.
  • Epidural Use often results in ineffective contractions, difficulty pushing, uncoordinated suck of the newborn, false fever with neonatal ICU admission and life long back pain.

Avoid these dangers of hospital birth.

Choose homebirth for you and your baby!

Home | Exodus Homebirth Service | 712-326-9790 | nicole@exodushomebirth.com