The commonalities and differences in health professionals' views on home birth in Tasmania, Australia: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES

Home birth has attracted great controversy in the current context. There is a need for the public and health professionals to understand why maternity care providers have such different views on home birth, why they debate, what divides them into two opposite sides and if they have anything in common.

METHOD

A qualitative study involving twenty maternity health providers in Tasmania was conducted. It used semi-structured interview which included closed and open-ended questions to provide opportunities for exploring emerging insights from the voices of the participants.

FINDINGS

Health practitioners who support home birth do so for three reasons. Firstly, women have the right to choose the place of birth. Secondly, home birth may be more cost effective compared to hospital birth. Thirdly, if home birth is not supported, some women might choose to have a free birth. Those who opposed home birth argue that complications could occur at childbirth and the transfer time is critical for women's and babies' safety. These differences in opinions can be due to the differences in the training and philosophy of the maternity care providers. Despite the differing views on home births, health professionals share a common goal to protect the women and the newborns from unexpected situations during childbirth.

CONCLUSION

This article provides some significant insights derived from the study of home birth from the maternity health professionals' perspectives and could contribute to the enhancement of mutual understanding and collaboration of health professionals in their services to expectant mothers.