Undergraduate Student's Perceptions of Planned Homebirths

People

Faculty
  Nelta Edwards

Student Researchers
  Kate Sanders
  nmedwards

Abstract

Alaska has one of the highest rates of homebirth in the U.S. with a rate above 1.5% while the U.S. average is around 1% (MacDorman et al. 2011). Much of the previous research on homebirth focuses on the perspective of women, either as providers or as mothers who chose homebirth. There are no studies documenting the attitudes of Americans in general toward homebirth. Previous research on the attitudes of practicing midwives towards homebirth suggests that experience and exposure lead to more favorable perceptions; midwives who had experience attending homebirth or exposure in their education to homebirth had more positive attitudes than midwives who had no experience attending a homebirth and/or who weren’t exposed to homebirth in their formal training (Veclam et al. 2010). The aim of this study is to measure undergraduate students’ perceptions of homebirth. I will investigate whether there are gender differences in perceptions of homebirth and if having prior knowledge or experience of homebirth changes perceptions of homebirth.

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