~Why I chose Homebirth~

It all started back in 2008. I started getting the baby bug. We had been married for 3 years which was right around the mark we had said we would wait til. I was ready before Peter mainly because he was thinking about the financial side of it. We had just gotten back from a School of Ministry and were living in a camper at the time. We were trying to figure out what God wanted us to do next. Settle down and start a family or head out to another country to do mission work. While we both worked full time job and pursued Gods will on the matter I was talking to every friend, cousin, or sister in law of mine who had little ones. I was curious about pregnancy and what it was like and the birth, nursing etc. I heard lots of different stories. Some who birthed in the hospital and had all c-sections, some birthed naturally in the hospital, some naturally with midwife in the hospital or birth center and then some who had a homebirth.
{A little side note, my aunt had a homebirth with her 5th child about 9 years ago and I thougt it was so wierd}
Long story short God wanted us to settle down and start a family. We had gone through some ups and downs in 2008, some medical stuff, but then we bought a house and a couple weeks later I found out I was preggo. Yay. It took about 5 months. We were soooo excited. But I had to figure out what kind of birth I wanted to have. At this point after hearing all sorts of birth stories I knew I wanted a mostly to all natural birth. (Meaning no interventions unless needed and certainly no shot in my spine.) I knew I wanted to use a midwife. I liked the idea of one woman with me the whole way through. What I couldn't decide was if I wanted to birth at a hospital, birth center, or at home. At home still sounded too risky to me. In searching for midwives I really didn't find too many in the area but I narrowed it down to two. I decided to make a consultation with both and then go from there.
Well the first one we went to was Rising Moon Midwifery. She only did homebirths or you could come to her office if you wanted to. Well I had in my head "good we can go to her." Peter and I went with our questions and talked with her for about 45 min about how she operates, what to expect, her statistics and opinion, etc. We didn't have any issues what so ever with anything she had to say, she made us feel very comfortable about birth and laboring at home. She was everything we wanted. EVERYTHING! On the way home Peter said, "Lets have our baby at home; Its no different then being at her office." SO we decided that day to have a homebirth, with Rising Moon and we cancelled our other consultaion. (So glad I did b/c they stopped practicing mid way thru my pregnancy. i would have had to find a new midwife.)

We were super excited but I immediatly thought what is my family going to say. We already are the wierdos of the family and now we're going to have a baby at home. So we had to explain to people why this was the right choice for us. Which brings me to Why I chose homebirth.

I wanted to EXPERIENCE birth. I wanted to feel it, every bit of it, especially that baby coming out. I wanted to see it happen and remember it. I wanted to have the reward of pulling that baby up from between my legs and be the first one to look in to its little eyes. I wanted to be able to say I did it. I gave birth. I pushed my baby out. I wanted to have somebody with me who would listen to me, respect my wishes, consult me before doing things and who had the same goal as me. Getting the baby out as naturally as possible with NO interventions unless absolutly needed. Throughout my pregnancy I learned a lot about the different interventions and I learned that although in some cases they are helpful they usually end up doing more harm than good. I began to get a new perspective of birth and realize that it is a natural process that our bodies were made to do. It was going to be painful but its for a good reason. I knew why it was happening, where a pain from a stomach ache is not supposed to be happening. (did I explain that well?) It was going to be a good pain that I wanted to experience. I also learned about how so many different things can effect labor and prevent progression. Being at home would be the most comfortable environment for me to be able to labor the way I need to labor and move around and eat and just do my thing. Not having to be in the hospital setting with IVs and monitors attached to me was very appealing to me. And I wanted as little people there as possible. Me, Peter, my midwife and her 2 assistants were the only ones there. It ended up being perfect. Perfect for me anyways! Homebirth was the perfect way to bring my baby Nonah into the world and now baby #2 will come that way as well.

Check out Noni's birthstory here.

Check out this documentary on birth in America vs. other countries and how it has evolved into such a medical event. It share perspectives from both midwives and OBGYNs and moms who have had either both a hospital and homebirth experience or just a homebirth. Its really eye opening.