Post no. 999 - In case of emergency...

One of the things that people often worry about when planning a home birth is potential emergency scenarios and how long it will take to transfer to hospital if there is an emergency. The research shows that for low-risk pregnancies home birth is as safe, if not safer, than hospital birth (because labour is ‘allowed’ to progress normally without interference). Fortunately emergency situations are not that common and midwives are trained to deal with most of these until transfer is made but most of the time hospital transfer is due to lack of progress or the mother requesting an epidural.