Home Birth Becomes New Fashion in the US while More Women in Tibet Deliver in Hospitals

In the United States, where most births took place in hospitals by 1940s, today more and more women choose home birth. According to New York Times, about 30,000 women will give birth at home this year. But in Tibet where delivering at home was the only choice until recently, the officials today encourage women to deliver their babies in the hospital, according to China’s Tibet. The policy has been carried out in other Tibetan areas. In “Shangrila” (Gyalthang in Tibetan), Yunnan Province, women from rural areas receive 1650 Yuan if they deliver their babies in county-level hospitals while the delivery is done freely. The Healthy Lifestyle program looks at why more educated women in the US choose home delivery and what do they see the importance of avoiding un-necessary hospital-delivery. At the same time, it looks at what conditions make it necessary to deliver babies in the hospitals.