UK Department of Health to Promote Home Birth
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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Go Brits!UK Government to promote home births
From the article:
The Department of Health says it wants to end assumptions that a hospital is always the best place to have a baby.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We are committed to offering all women the choice of how and where they give birth, and what pain relief is available.
"The government underlined its commitment to delivering choice in maternity services in its 2005 manifesto, the National Service Framework for children and maternity and the recent White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say.
"All these services will be offered within the context of what is safe and clinically appropriate care for each individual woman.
"We also want every woman to be supported by a named midwife throughout their pregnancy, and for services to be linked to those provided in Children's Centres."
Belinda Phipps, NCT chief executive, said flawed research from the 1970s which falsely concluded home births were not safe had informed government policy for decades.
Obviously some of this movement is being pushed due to the lower costs of midwifery care and home births, but that's something that should be celebrated. In fact, I would love to see this get pushed through and enacted in the UK so that we could really see some positive results that could be used to push for this type of choice in other countries. (the U.S. anyone?)
Labels: Childbirth Issues
Meant to email you with that one, glad you found it anyway. Can't help feeling a little cynical that it's actually about cost cutting rather than choice, but hey, if it works ;)
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