Why Home Birth?

Photo creds again to Sarah Wiseman Photography. Love her!!

As many of you are aware if you follow this blog, I am quite the flower child so it probably wasn't overly surprising to you all that I would want to try birthing my baby at home. But what led me to that decision? I'm not going to lie to you, I have pretty well done a 180 in my life when it comes to health. My parents were both in the medical field; my dad still is. My husband's father is, too. So both of us grew up fully believing in the wonders of all that modern medicine has to offer, but now I am on a much more holistic path.

Keep in mind, no matter how many stories you hear and how much research you do, all families are different. What works for me and us could be completely unfeasible for you in your situation. 

Before I got married, I couldn't imagine not giving birth in a hospital on my back with an epidural and all the monitors. As I grew more into myself and started questioning everything, birth was just one more thing I wanted to be able to do my way (The Business of Being Born anyone?). One of the biggest triggers for my depression is feeling out of control so it is extremely important to me to have a say in what is going to happen when I am in such a vulnerable state. Being at home is the easiest way to accomplish that.

Hospitals have the best of intentions. All their policies are in place to ensure that any emergency situation can be handled efficiently, but to me, that feels more like being put through a checklist. We are all so different, and each pregnancy and birth will be different even with the same parents. It is so important to me to be able to labor in my own way at my own pace instead of being rushed and interrupted and checked frequently. Additionally, if birth really was as mortal as we are led to believe, would we really have managed to almost overpopulate the planet? I think not! Birth is a natural biological process, not a medical emergency. Don't get me wrong, if this was not a low-risk pregnancy, I would have birthed in a hospital. But the odds were in our favor!

Here is a quick list of the things that I LOVED about birthing at home:

• Not having to worry about my dogs and cats
• Introducing the baby to the dogs was seemless
• Having the freedom to walk and move around as I please
• Being able to pee when I please
• No needles and other hindering contraptions connected to me
• Having the option to eat and drink as much as I feel comfortable (even though it was none)
• Not having to wait for the hospital to bring food on their schedule and worry about if it was vegan
• Not having to pack a bag for the hospital
• Not having to birth on my back
• Not being asked multiple times about getting an epidural or other pain relief
• Not having to fight to keep my placenta
• Being in my own home with my own bed and shower
• Not feeling rushed or questioned or like I have to argue about the post-birth measures I would like to take
• Being able to labor and birth in water
• Being able to fully trust in my body to be able to go through this natural process and truly be in the moment through the entire experience

Have any of you birthed not in a traditional hospital setting? What scares you the most about birthing at home? Do you have any questions for me?