BY Ricki Lake
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the surprising news that home birth rates jumped 29% between 2004-2009. For non-Hispanic white women, home births increased a dramatic 36%.
Many experts are trying to figure out what caused this enormous spike, but no one is entirely sure.
Some say that an increase in the number of women without insurance is a factor since home births are more affordable than hospital births. Others counter that insured women often pay out of pocket for home births because it isn’t covered under their policies.
Many childbirth professionals feel the increase is a result of more education and informed choice. They say women want more control over their environment and a one-on-one relationship with their birth attendant.
A few articles cited my 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born as a contributing factor combined with the “celebrity influence” of women like myself, Gisele Bundchen, and Cindy Crawford who have shared our positive home birth stories.
Personally, I think there is some truth to almost all these theories. I know firsthand that The Business of Being Born has opened many people’s eyes to the possibility of a home birth as a more mainstream option. But I think attributing the trend to being Hollywood-driven is kind of silly.
First of all, very few celebrities have natural births or home births and the ones who do rarely talk about it publicly. Secondly, celebrities may influence beauty and fashion trends but there’s a huge difference between getting a sexy tattoo and having a twelve-hour, unmedicated labor! Believe me, nobody has a natural birth or a home birth to be fashionable or trendy.
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