Why Choose Homebirth

Most preteens are not really thinking much about babies, not to mention researching birth methods and entertaining the possibility of home birth. However, I am not most preteens. At around twelve years old I got it into my head that I wanted home births when it was time to become a mother. Why would I choose homebirth? Let me tell you!

Why did I chose Homebirth?

Honestly, the launching factor that got me to research was my extreme fear of needles. I don’t know about you, but when I see a needle of any kind I immediately start getting short of breath and sweaty. It stems from a very bad childhood experience that my mind has completely blocked out, but the fear lingers. I knew because of this that I would not be able to even think about an epidural. I mean, the little finger prick to test iron levels got to me. Nope. No needles. No IVs. None. So I chose a homebirth.

I will admit, it took a little convincing to get my husband to agree. His anxieties were settled when we started interviewing midwives near the end of our first trimester. Funny thing, media loves portraying midwives as this completely untrained woman with nothing but hot rags and herbs. Reality is far different. Midwives are highly trained to deliver low-risk babies and they are taught to recognize signs when alternate medical attention is necessary. We interviewed a few and I felt a wave of relief when he warmed up to the idea and even started telling others. Both of us watched The Business Of Being Born and it opened his eyes to all the traumas associated with medicated births.

In order to prepare ourselves for our natural birth, we did take The Bradley Method classes, also known as Husband Coached Childbirth. To read all the reasons I love The Bradley Method, click here. To find a Bradley Teacher near you, visit www.BradleyBirth.com.

During the whole process, my resolve got stronger and stronger. Why yes, I would love to be able to make my own choices after doing research. Everything was low invasive, my wishes were fully respected meaning there was no “routine” to follow”. I could accept or decline any testing and procedures. Therefore, I never had any vaginal checks. No need for the glucose test. No, I don’t want to test for GBS. Nope. We researched the warning signs and knew that we could reconsider later if we changed our mind.

The best parts of having a midwife?

All of my prenatal appointments were in a home setting. No awkward dressing gowns, medical table and intimidating stirrups. Christian radio played in the back ground and all my appointments took place on a super comfortable couch. I got to see her life and she got to see mine when she traveled out my way for home visits.

In addition to all the comforts of prenatals, the climax of why we hired a midwife was the birth itself. We wanted the comfort of home and to avoid the stress of a hospital and strangers constantly pressuring for routine things that we declined. We wanted to be able to eat, drink, walk and bathe at our leisure. I wanted to avoid any possibility of post-birth routine procedures that we were declining. We got all of that and more!

When it came time for baby to be born, I called her (or rather I screamed at hubby to call her) when things got really serious, she came over and less than four hours later we had a baby! We had our successful waterbirth baby and he was beautiful! If you want to read the full story, click here. We also had a second successful home waterbirth and our third was a planned freebirth. 

Should you choose homebirth? That is entirely up to you. Homebirth is not for everyone and it is certainly not the safest option for high-risk pregnancies, but if you are anything like me and want a hands-off birth experience, maybe you should consider it.

Have you ever considered homebirth? Tell me in the comments below! Want to be featured on this blog? Submit your story here.