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Hospital Offers Safer Alternative To Increasingly Popular Home Births

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Call it 'back to the future' women have been giving birth the old-fashioned way, at home.

Home births are up 40 percent in the past decade, for women who want a calmer, less technological birthing experience.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, despite the increase, home births are still less than 2 percent of all babies delivered in the U.S.

The vast majority of deliveries do absolutely fine at home, but if a complication occurs, minutes can be the difference between tragedy and an averted disaster.

Bree Cohen believed that giving birth should be a very natural experience, so she considered giving birth at home, until she went through it.

"I realized I was nervous about New York City traffic, and what if I needed to get to a hospital, that would be really stressful and I didn't want to add that kind of stress to my birthing experience," she said.

Bree's daughter Zoe wasn't born at home, but in something very much like a home, a really nice home with a big bed, a hot tub to ease labor pains, a microwave and a coffee maker.

The room is actually at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Lower Manhattan.

"Anything that can be done in any hospital could be done here, but at the same time, things that don't need to be done that women decide to have home births for intervention, all the bright lights, all the noise, we don't have any of that. It's the best of both worlds the way we see it," Dr. Jacques Mortiz said.

The technology in the room is hidden behind panels, but outside and down the hall are fully equipped labor and delivery rooms including a blood bank and an operating room.

It's something that set Zachary Cohen's mind at ease.

"It's not my nature to be calm uh, in, in these types of situations," he said.

Births are attended by certified nurse midwives like Rita Wagner, who showed CBS2's Dr. Gomez how moms in labor can use yoga-type slings.

"They just kind of sling themselves into this and allow their body to relax and this frees their legs and allows all the musculature in their pelvis to let the baby's head descend," she explained.

Women at any kind of high risk such as those who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, or have had a previous pregnancy complication should not try an out of hospital birth.

As trained midwife or certified nurse midwife makes home birth a much safer option.

 

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