(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-27 13:13

AMSTERDAM - When I discovered I was expecting a baby during my posting to the Netherlands, I spent much of my pregnancy trying to work out how to avoid a traditional Dutch birth - at home and with no pain relief.

Future parents learn to relax in a pregnancy class to prepare for a traditional Dutch birth in Amsterdam, March 24, 2008. The Dutch philosophy is that childbirth is a natural physical process that should not be medicalised unless there are complications, and should primarily be handled by midwives at home rather than by doctors in a hospital. [Agencies]

But since the arrival of my bouncing baby son, I have become a convert to at least one aspect of the Dutch health system - home care for a week after birth by a maternity nurse who does everything from nappy-changing to cleaning and cooking.

The Dutch philosophy is that childbirth is a natural physical process that should not be medicalised unless there are complications, and should primarily be handled by midwives at home rather than by doctors in a hospital.

The Netherlands has the highest rate of home births in the western world at 30 percent, only 10 percent of women in labour are given pain relief and caesareans are relatively rare.

In contrast, about a third of babies are born by caesarean in the United States and about 20 percent in Britain, while only a tiny fraction of women have home births. Midwives who assist home births can even be prosecuted in some US states.

Stunned that the Dutch believe labour pains are important for helping develop the mother-baby bond, I researched the anaesthesia policy at all the nearby hospitals only to discover that there was no guarantee of drugs at any of them.

The prospect of a home birth became all the more real when I was advised to have medical supplies on hand -- including swabs and an umbilical cord clamp -- and when metal stands were delivered to raise our bed to help the midwife during delivery.

With my due date set for May 1, I nervously joked I might be in labour on Labour day. Then I realised I might not be able to get to hospital in an emergency because of the partying throngs celebrating the April 30 Dutch national holiday.

A Dutch neighbour offered to have his boat at the ready to ferry me from our canal-side home if necessary, but I decided to make contingency plans to stay near the hospital instead.

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