Eight Reasons To Have A Homebirth

Disclaimer: Of course you should always follow the advice of your medical team, be it midwife or OBGYN. This article is for pregnant people who have the option of having a safe, supervised homebirth but are still undecided.

I’m not going to go into much detail about the scientific arguments for birthing at home, but instead I’m going to focus on the more emotional and intuitive reasons for homebirth, as I believe ultimately this decision is one for the soul.

I personally have experienced two homebirths attended by my midwives, so naturally this article is in favour of birthing at home. I am also writing from my Canadian experience, so the specific details of what homebirth looks like in your country or city many vary.

If you are asking yourself “Should I have a homebirth?” Read on!

1. You get to control the environment.

Perhaps you want to listen to chanting monks while burning incense. Or if you would rather scream along to some hard rock, that works too!

When you birth at home, you get to create your own perfect ambiance. Plus you can always change things up part way through. Move to a different room. Spend time in your tub. Go for a walk around the block. The choice is yours!

The same can be said for eating and drinking. You have the freedom to eat or drink however much you want.

Now, truth be told, once things really get going, you’re likely not going to want to eat very much, but you will have the freedom to make your own decisions. Want to order a huge pizza the moment the baby comes out? Go ahead!

2. You get to decide who is there, or who isn’t.

When you birth at home, you get to say who is involved. It’s easy to keep your unwanted relatives away, unless you want to share the experience with them.

You also get more control over who cares for you during labour. When you birth with a midwife, you already know them and have likely met their assistant as well. You don’t have different nurses or doctors coming in and out, and this familiarity brings a much needed sense of security.

Birthing at home helps you maintain some sense of control in your most vulnerable moment, making it easier to let go and give in to the process.

3. You can choose to involve your older kids.

Assuming you have someone to watch them while you labour, your kids can be present for the birth. It can be much easier for everyone if the children are able to spend their day how they normally would, while also being as present or involved with the birth as you deem fit.

They don’t have to wait to be invited to the hospital to meet their new sibling, they can be there right as the baby emerges into the world!

You will want to prepare them for what natural birth looks like, by showing them some videos and talking about the blood or loud noises that might otherwise scare them. Of course you know your kids best; just because you’re birthing at home doesn’t mean your kids have to be there, but if involving them is something important to you, home birth makes that much easier.

For my second birth my eldest child, who had recently turned three, was present throughout the whole process. We had prepared her for what she might see or hear, and she understood that I was going to be working hard to push the baby out.

We had our doula/friend watch her, and my big kid was able to meet their little sibling moments after birth. The birth of her sibling appears to be her first longterm memory, and she still speaks fondly of the experience. Those first moments as a family of four are memories we will all cherish forever.

4. Everything is more relaxed.

When you birth at home under the care of a midwife, there is a certain feeling of safety and comfort. The midwives, while always prepared for an emergency, tend to have the attitude that birth is natural and that things will progress without much need for intervention.

When you birth at home, there is an underlying belief that you are perfectly capable of a natural birth, and this boost of confidence can help you work through the hardest parts of labour.

During the intensity of labour, I personally found it extremely reassuring to see my midwives sitting by, calmly watching. There isn’t a sense of panic or fear, and the expectation is that you will birth beautifully on your own time.

There is also no time pressure like there might be in a hospital or birth centre. Baring any medical concerns, you are free to labour without counting the hours on the clock. There aren’t any machines threatening danger, and while the midwives do perform regular checks on you and your baby, they are discrete and without any sense of pressure.

Check out Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin for mind-blowing stories of hippies having beautiful births while living in vans and on a commune. It’s wild and inspiring!

The feeling that everyone trusts your body can make the difference between having a beautiful birth or a stressful one.

5. Less medical intervention.

As I mentioned, when you birth at home you aren’t constantly attached to a machine, nor are there people coming by offering you drugs.

If having a natural birth is important to you, homebirth is a great way to ensure you don’t give in to the pressure to medicate the pain away.

I’m not trying to speak against using drugs to ease the pain of labour, however, there is a valid argument to be made for wanting to experience childbirth naturally. The various medicines don’t always work as intended, and the effects might be more than you bargained for. If you want to have a natural birth, homebirth is a great way to make this happen.

When you’re in labour, you might be surprised by the intensity of it all, and it’s common for people to want to escape from the overwhelming pain and fear.

During both of my births, there were moments when I knew I would have been susceptible to taking drugs I had previous been adamantly against.

When you’re at home, receiving pain medication isn’t really an option, unless you decide to endure the car ride to check yourself into the hospital.

If having an unmedicated natural birth is something you desire, homebirth might be the perfect option for you.

6. You get to decide where and how you deliver.

With my first homebirth I had imagined labouring peacefully in the shower, before birthing in a squatting position in my living room. Never mind I couldn’t do a seated squat, I still daydreamed of this beautiful, perfect birth!

Of course things didn’t go exactly as planned. I hated being in water, and quickly left the shower after barely getting wet. When labour kicked into high gear, I suddenly felt the urge to be in my bedroom, the last room I thought I would want to birth in, and my support team had to quickly move all the tools and materials in preparation for my baby.

When you have a homebirth, you have great freedom to move around in any way that works for you. If you want to walk, squat, bounce on a ball, relax in the tub, or anything else you can think of, it’s your prerogative. You can’t fully plan what your body will want to do to ease the pain, but when you’re at home you have many options and the freedom to follow your instincts.

When it’s time to push, you are again free to find the best position; you don’t have to ask permission to leave your bed.

I remember when I was considering birthing at my local hospital, which boasts having a wonderful birth environment. While they did provide some stability balls, a big tub (that was shared with the other occupant in an adjoining room) and a birthing bar, ultimately these options didn’t feel worth the sacrifice of being in a foreign environment.

To be able to birth in my own home, in any position that felt right, was priceless.

7. Maintain some control in an unpredictable situation.

As you may have noticed, most of the benefits of homebirth are connected to maintaining control. While every birth experience is unique, having some control over the environment can be very empowering.

When we free ourselves from the stress of being in an unfamiliar situation in which other people dictate what is best for our bodies, we are better able to surrender to the experience of birth.

Personally speaking, in both of my labours I hit a point where the pain and fear became overwhelming, and my first instinct was to escape. Of course you can’t escape birthing your baby, especially at home, so the only other option was to surrender.

When I was able to accept the powerful force of birth, my fear was lessened and the pain became more manageable. It was still extremely painful, but something I could endure instead of being overwhelmed and frightened.

8. You’re already home.

After the birth and all the necessary check-ups and clean up are done, everyone leaves and you are left alone to treasure your newest addition to the family.

You don’t have to wait to be discharged from the hospital; you’re already home.

There are practical benefits too, like your baby being born into your world full of your family’s sights, sounds, and smells. The only germs are your own, and the only hands touching your baby belong to your family.

The first blanket you wrap them in is one of your own choosing. Your first pictures with them are in the comfort of your own home. There is nobody coming around to check on your baby or tell you how to care for them, at least not until your midwife comes back the next day to check on everyone.

Homebirth can be a beautiful and intimate experience, bringing your baby into the world in the very place they are meant to be: your home.

Conclusion

Homebirth isn’t for everyone, and it certainly takes a level of determination to face your fears in such an intimate way. For some, the hospital provides a space that feels safe, and can free people from taking a certain level of responsibility for their birth. There is nothing wrong with choosing to birth in a hospital, and for many of us, this is the only choice.

However, for those of us who have the option to birth at home, the idea of bringing our babies into the world in our own safe and comfortable environment only enhances the birth experience.

There is still an unfortunate amount of fear surrounding birth, in part because it has been so effectively medicalized; many of us have been taught that birthing in a hospital is the only way to have a safe birth.

Of course, birth doesn’t always go as planned. Even with skilled midwives or an OBGYN, at home, in a birth centre, or in the hospital, birth can have disastrous results.

Nobody wants to feel like their choice of birth endangered their baby, but we also shouldn’t assume that homebirth is the more risky option. It really depends on each situation. (The Business Of Being Born is an excellent documentary on this subject)

I firmly believe that ultimately, how a child enters the world is largely out of our hands. The new soul has a say in when and how they are born. If something were to go wrong, even when we did everything right, we shouldn’t blame ourselves for any misfortune.

Each child is a blessing, and every birth is just as unique as soul entering the world.

Allow me to finish with a short story from my first homebirth. It was a beautiful experience, without complications. After the placenta was delivered my midwife discovered something alarming. The umbilical cord attached to the placenta in a strange way, meaning if my water had ruptured in the wrong place, my baby would have immediately been cut off of their oxygen supply.

The midwife was angry that the ultrasound technicians didn’t discover this issue, and said if they had known I never would have been allowed to birth at home.

I felt a mix of emotions upon learning this news. On one hand it was scary to learn how close we had come to disaster, but on the other hand this oversight allowed me to have the beautiful birth experience that I desired.

I firmly believe the angels were watching over us and guiding the experience, as they always do. When it was time to birth my second baby, I didn’t hesitate to choose to birth at home again.

Whatever you decide, have confidence in your decision.

Birth can be intimidating, and downright scary at times, but it truly is a beautiful thing. I firmly believe you should birth wherever you feel safest, and the most comfortable, so that you can ease your worries and instead surrender to this powerful experience.

For many of us, that place is our home.