I want to preface my home birth experience by letting you know that my intent in sharing my experience is so that others can know that IT CAN be done, with a positive outcome for mom and baby, despite the pain of it.  That being said, I don’t believe in sugar coating anything, and although there are people with quick and calm home births, that isn’t the experience for everyone. I definitely felt calmer than I did at the hospital and remembering why I chose a home birth is why I chose to birth at home a second time (if you haven’t read my first home birth experience, you can read it here: http://herbivorehomemaker.com/my-all-natural-home-water-birth-experience/).  My experience is definitely not representative of home births as a whole, so please keep that in mind as you read my story.  

The desire to have a home birth was originally kindled in highschool, when I took a brief one day course on the basics of midwifery.  I had already been curious about home births, as I grew up homeschooled in a homeschooling community where quite a few friend’s mom’s had home births with a midwife.  They had gotten to be there when their mom gave birth and told me about it.  I found it quite intriguing. I loved the thought of an all natural birth in the comfort of your own home along with the benefits that go along with that.  Fast forward to when I got pregnant with my first.  I was only 19, and although I desired to have a home birth with a midwife, my insurance wouldn’t cover it.  I also felt pressured by quite a few people to have the baby at the hospital.  “What if something goes wrong?” they would say.  “It’s your first, so you don’t know how it will go!” I foolishly let the fears of others take hold in me and caved to having my first child at the hospital.  I wish I hadn’t.