The planned home birth has provoked discussion around the world. Home birth has been described as a positive experience, but results regarding the safety of home birth are controversial. To date, the phenomenon has mainly been examined from the mother's point of view, and there is only one previous study reporting fathers' perspective. The purpose of the present phenomenological qualitative interview study was to investigate fathers' experiences of planned home birth. Eleven fathers were interviewed, and the data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The fathers followed the woman's wish in choosing the birthplace and set aside their own views. Furthermore, hospital birth was not an option for the fathers due to their own prior negative experiences of hospital births such as disturbing the natural progress of birth. The fathers' experience of home birth included sharing the responsibility, supporting the woman, and participating in the home birth process. The experience was challenging; fathers had to take the role of a midwife, and no support or information on organizing home birth was offered by public health services. The fathers felt that the home birth connected them as family, and the experience was empowering. Our study results suggest that the health care professionals need more education and information on home birth and that the families (including fathers) interested in home birth need greater support from health care professionals. There is a need for proper national home birth guidelines, while family-and client-centered care has to be improved in birthing hospitals.
Keywords: fathers; home childbirth; natural childbirth; phenomenological method; qualitative research.
© The Author(s) 2014.