Home birth: Understanding the reasons for this choice

Abstract

This qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study aimed to understand the reasons that underlie the choice of homebirth. The information was captured through semi-structured interviews, applied between February and March 2014, recorded and transcribed. The sample obtained by saturation of data was composed of 14 women who had at least one experience of home birth, planned and attended in the previous year in the city of Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil, and region. The discussions were analyzed according to the method of Bardin’s content analysis. The results gave rise to two categories: to gain information so as to be able to make an informed choice, and to be against the model of hospital care. The reasons listed show that the acquisition of knowledge is a basic condition to support the decision to give birth at home, in addition to revealing these women’s great dissatisfaction with the current institutionalized model of care during childbirth.