Normalizing the Option of Giving Birth at Home (From My Personal Experience)
Giving birth at home certainly isn’t for everyone. But I knew it was for me.
Five years ago, when I told friends, loved ones, and even strangers, that I was planning a home birth, I was met with a lot of wide, fearful eyes, shock and uncertainty. To which, I’d calmly explain, “I trust my body knows what it’s doing.”
I now share my story to help normalize just how safe and beautiful this process can be.
Home birth puts the body at ease.
Many believe that a home birth is dangerous. And, to be fair, it absolutely can be. Hell, giving birth at all is dangerous.
But, having had a low-risk birth, I personally found the risk of a hospital birth to be greater.
After all, only around 5% of midwife-led home births result in a C-section, compared to nearly 31% of hospital births.
By giving birth in the comfort of my own home, my body was already in a state of ease. With each contraction, I was able to relax further into my safe and familiar environment, surrounded only by familiar faces.
So, how did my home birth look?
I’m often asked this because it can be hard to imagine anything but what we’ve heard about or seen in movies.
While in early labor, I calmly set up a birthing “altar” in my living room, filled with loving mementos from friends and loved ones who were rooting me on. I turned off lights, lit candles, and made a pillow pallet to labor in.
My partner at the time was there, giving me as much comfort as he knew how. And once my midwives and best friend arrived, they all quietly encircled me as I squatted, rocked, and crawled around my living room floor, allowing my to body move in whatever way it needed to find comfort.
I was grateful to have my midwives present as a minor intervention (and the reassurance in their wise eyes) was needed. For four hours, the room was filled only with silent prayer and my own occasional howls. Until finally, from a squatting position and with one final push, I caught my son with my own bare hands.
I would do it all again.
It wasn’t easy. But it was beautiful.
I’m well-aware that I was very fortunate in how smoothly my home birth went. But I’m very certain that, if given another chance, I’d do it just the same.
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