Women who have their children at home are trying to avoid the technological and intrusive experience of hospital birth. What they are seeking is a birth experience which meets their needs and the needs of those with whom they are close. Turkel said people often forget how much risk is associated with hospital births. Fetal monitors that they use in hospitals also carry a risk and can lead to C-sections by sometimes identifying problems that don't exist. And there is a greater chance that drugs will be administered in a hospital birth and there are no drugs thought to be safe for a fetus.
Home births are always unmedicated so the risk is eliminated for the mother or child.
In her earlier research, Turkel followed the establishment of the Nurse-Midwifery Birthing Center, which in l986 became the Birth Center of Delaware. Sometimes they are people who don't like hospitals, sometimes they are people who lack health insurance and can cut their bills in half by using the center. Birth centers are becoming increasingly popular because of their cost cutting-factor and also because of the added individualized attention the women clients receive. Birth centers pay a lot of attention to women. There are no fetal monitors and no restrictions on movement.