Where or how???

[Sammilee]

Where or how did you initially hear about the concept of a homebirth? Is it a concept that you have always 'just' known about? Did you 'discover' and learn about homebirthing here on BH? Or another forum? Or from books? Or the internet? Or maybe a medical professional such as a GP mentioned it to you as a birthing option? Did a friend or family member have a homebirth? Tell me... Where??? How???

When I fell pg last year a homebirth wasn't something that I thought of as a truly viable option. In all honestly I didn't even think about it! I just automatically assumed that my options were to either give birth in a public hospital or book into a private obs/ hospital, similar to what family and friends had done in the past when they were expecting. Oh, and I had heard of the term 'family birthing centre' tossed around a little but that's about it. TBH I thought homebirthing was for more 'alternative' people, and it really was something that no-one did anymore (except maybe those that lived in a commune... joking! ;)). Little did I know, huh? :rolleyes: :D

Anyway, it wasn't until I got involved with BH, and started to read more about birth here, and in books, and on the net, that I soon discovered that homebirthing was indeed a very viable option (especially here in WA where I discovered that they have the CMP). Unfortunately I discovered all of this 'after the fact' once my DS had already been born. So how come it never dawned on me that a homebirth was something that I could have seriously looked into before I booked my obs? I have never been exposed to a homebirth, no-one in my family or circle of friends have had one, no-one at my place of employment have either, so can you see what I'm getting at? How do people know that they can achieve a homebirth? Especially those that have not been exposed to one? And lets face it, homebirthing is still relatively 'rare' so not a lot of people would be directly exposed to it IYKWIM. How does one readily 'discover' that this is indeed an option that they can choose, amongst the other options of a public hospital, a birth centre, a private obs/ hospital etc etc. How can we educate women out there about all of the birthing options rather than just the 'traditional' ones? I might be asking an 'unanswerable' question but I just wanted to get others ideas on this...

TIA and sorry for all the questions about homebirthing, but as you can gather I'm starting to do my research now before TTC#2 and all these question are popping into my head :D

[stellarella]

I suppose I have always been drawn to HB since I started thinking about babies and childbirth...
I have some pretty mainstream Labour and Birth books and it has been mentioned in those...albeit in about one or two sentences.

I've always been into alternative medicine, taking the natural route, reading about health etc. so to me HB has never been weird. I am also the kind of person who finds out a lot about any subject that crops up in my life...so as soon as I thought about becoming pregnant I started reading a lot...searching for the alternative to a hospital birth...finding the alternatives to most things we do in society actually :p

The way to eductae women is to do what we do now....come onto mainstream parenting forums and talk about it as an option...answer womens questions, spread the word about it's safety. Let people know that if they make that decision then they are choosing a really safe and sensible option.

The reason why it is so important to reassure women that it is a safe/safer alternative is because they will come up against a lot of counter pressure. You not only have to make the decision in the first place, you then have to have the strength and fortitude to follow through and brush off comments from EVERYONE...work mates, family, HCPs, people on forums ;)

I know plenty of women who wanted one and who have now been talked around or frightened off, or they just don't get any support when they encounter small hurdles :(

There are some groups out there who are actively involved in advocacy. HMA (Home Midwifery Australia) is one which comes to mind.

A truly autonomous HB is a dying species unfortunately. I spend a lot of time talking to midwife about this as she is a prominent figure in HB in Australia. Until more women demand this option and push for it, the Government/health care system will continue to try and eliminate that choice.

[PookieLady]

Im glad you asked about this...

When i was 40 weeks preg with DD, i remember swimming in my pool with this massive beautiful belly afer coming home from the hospital where we had had a sceaming match whit my OP who wanted to give me a c-section for no real reason (anyway thats another story). So i was swimming round with these watchfull eyes waiting for any sign of labour and saying "Its no wonder people homebirth, i think i should just stay at home then i wont have to put up with these silly OB's" we all had a laugh thinking as much as it would be nice we have just left it to late in my pregnancy.
After my DD was born via c-section after all the screaming matches i thought to myself im going to research homebirth and see if its possiably. At first i got the 'omg your nuts' comments and even ones like 'can they do another c-section at home?' but once i had the full support of my husband and mum i thought hey i can do this peace of cake. So for the past 18 months i have been reading books, chatting to other homebirth mummas, google google googleing and also meeting with midwives to find out as much as i can about homebirth and the more research i do the more i realise that this is the right path for me and i couldnt think of a better way to bring another child into the world.
So there you have it i hope i have answered everything.
Sarah

[V8]

I learned from bubhub. After my traumatic hospy experience with DS1 i really questioned how everything went, i read others' birth stories of homebirth and thought, wow amazing, i could never do that! I was actually weighing up just going for a c-section if i conceived again as i was that terrified of giving birth again. But after reading more about the dangers of c-sections and more about the bliss of homebirthing, i got myself educated as much as possible, i met with many other like minded homebirthers who had done it before me, realised that they were just like any other person on the street there was nothing extra special about these people just that they were passionate to have an enjoyable birth experience. I thought why can't i have that? I trusted myself, i trusted birth and i trusted my baby, we did it together and it was such a huge acheivement and i am so glad i did it. I am a pretty normal everyday kinda person i just wanted a better option than a hospy.

[shed]

I can't remember a time when I first heard of it so I think I have always accepted it as something completely normal.

[mixy]

I found out about homebirth from a book i brought while i was pregnant with DD, i got it for $4 from a second hand store, it was written by Sheila kitzinger. I did not have the money or the support to even consider it. with DS i rung around before i got pregnant to find out the prices and was horrified at the price but seriously concidered the possiblity, but i was excepted into the birth center so thought "ok at least this is free". My birth center midwife left the center when i was 29 weeks pregnant, so again i delivered in the normal hospital system. this time i had the internet at home so was able to do some extra research, and also discovered forums that had so much support for my choice to HB, so as soon as we decided to TTC i started looking at my opinions. Having the baby bonus has really helped to. I have had some really unnessery negitive comments from ppl who are really uneducated about the subject- i find that really annoying. I hope that by me birthing this baby at home i will have exposed so many, i mean the ladies at the school, my mothers group, family etc. No-one i knew before i started going to HB meets had HB'ed so its new to everyone. i also get the funny questions like, "can you have an epi at home?" or "who cleans up all the mess?" (that one is probably my fav, cause i answer with, 'well my house is to messy to notice...' lol)

[kymmy]

Not sure.

I liked the stories of women giving birth on their own. Always appealed to me.

Not really into homebirth as such with doulas and midwives etc.