Why We Chose a Homebirth?

Lots of reasons and no particular reasons at all. We have not been very open about where this little one is being born, because frankly, we haven't wanted to hear people's opinions about it. It has only been in the past few weeks that I've even mentioned to certain people that we're having a homebirth.

People have a wide variety of opinions about homebirths, from: “you’re stupid, why would you risk your baby’s life like that” to “only ignorant people give birth in hospitals”. Obviously, I’m not either of those extremes.  Where do I fall? Smack dab in the middle, you do what you want, I’ll do what I want. This isn’t a decision that we’ve just decided to randomly make, it was with a lot of thought, care, consideration and research {do your research!}.

Avelyn’s birth was completely textbook, no surprises, no problems. The triplets' birth was pretty much the same, other than the obvious of there being three of them. Both times it went pretty fast. Fast enough the first time, that the second time our doctor insisted we get to the nearest hospital and be transported via ambulance {big waste of $2000 in my opinion}.

Before the triplets were born, my usual OB {and several of her colleagues} left the nearest hospital’s practice {the hospital was a 45 minute drive away}, the doctors that were there I did not like: The next closest hospital is an hour away.

I have to admit we really never sat down and made a list of pros and cons as to the why or whether of a homebirth. It was something we discussed, found a midwife to talk to, and kind of just went with it. Now before you think that we’ve entered this whole thing rather brashly, we haven’t.

Since Ave’s birth I’ve read articles online, books, personal experiences, medical journals etc about the risks and joys of a homebirth {find my pin board here}. We’ve taken into consideration my own labor and delivery experiences and our own comfort levels with not being in a hospital setting. It has been something that we have, in our own way, discussed and thought about at great length over the past few years.

Reason #1

I have very smooth, pretty quick labors.

I have never had a complication or issue during labor and delivery that resulted in any sort of emergency situation. That said, we do realize that anything can happen, things can go wrong. Which is why we have done our research with our midwife and feel comfortable in her abilities and care. Also, we literally live 1500’ from our local hospital, and while they don’t do deliveries, they are completely capable of handling life and death situations.

The other side is that given my speedy deliveries the chances are very good that we would barely make it to the hospital, and quite frankly I’d rather not be in the front seat of our van, pulled over on a back road in the middle of the night, pushing a baby out {most likely having mosquitoes feasting on my nether-regions}.

Reason #2

I don’t particularly like hospitals.

This might seem a ridiculous reason, but I don’t like hospitals…like REALLY don’t like them. Yes, I realize I’ve had 4 kids in a hospital without incident. I also know, from experience, how hard it is to get medical personnel who may have literally just met you to respect and adhere to your wishes. I have been extremely blessed with the medical personnel I have had to deal with, most have been highly considerate and understanding of our requests, but there have been enough of them that fought me and treated me like an idiot because of our desires for our children.

With our homebirth we don’t have to deal with any of that, not yet at least. There’s no pressure from a doctor or any one else to submit to anything that we’re not comfortable with, whether it be my care, laboring, delivery, post-partum, or our baby’s care.

Reason #3

I want to see if I can do this….again.

I know this may defy logical thought and reason for most people: That I would be willing to do something so potentially risky, just to have the experience {FYI bungee jumping is more dangerous than a homebirth}. Avelyn’s birth was over before it began. The triplets were an experience unto themselves. This time I want to be able to focus and enjoy the time of bringing this little one into the world, whether it takes 2 hours or 20 hours, without any distractions or undue concerns about getting to a hospital on time or anything else.

I know my body is strong…I know it is capable of incredible things. It took a triplet pregnancy to really KNOW that. I KNOW what my God is capable of. It’s for these reasons that I KNOW that a homebirth is an entirely reasonable and feasible desire for our birth. I want to experience this last experience to the fullest! No regrets.

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Honestly, this will be the last child that I birth into this world, and I feel incredibly blessed that we get to add one more little life to our family, that I get to experience one last time what a normal singleton pregnancy and birth is like. However, being pregnant at almost 33 years old {next month} and 28 are two entirely different experiences…I don’t think I have it in me to do this again at 35 or 36, while chasing after 5 kids {it’s the chasing after other kids that makes it hard}. Then there’s also that whole lovely infertility factor which has pretty much rendered this our last, whether we were ready or not. Thankfully God has prepared our hearts for that.