Home Birth??!!! What are yers?? Hippies or sumfin??

Maybe we are. Call us what you want. I don't care. If that makes you feel less threatened by people who are different. I honestly wish I didn't have to feel different, but I do. What a shame. In the Netherlands, about a third of births happen at home. "But is it safe??" Read the research before making assumptions about our informed choices. Yes, for low-risk women (and some reports even suggest for ALL women), outcomes for home births are similar or better than that for hospital births. Is it safe to stick a huge needle into your back or to dose the mother and baby (yes, drugs cross the placenta) with hard narcotics such as pethidine, then probably have to slice open mum's abdomen? "But what's wrong with hospital??" Nothing, if you are in a life-threatening situation and require surgery. That doesn't sound like a normal birth to me. In fact, the wonderful midwives at St George Hospital are incredibly supportive and will transfer us to hospital should we need to do that. We will cope with whatever happens, but to us, nothing could be better than bringing our child into the world in the safety and security of its own home. "But what about the pain??" Women have been strong enough for eons to bear the pain with support from friends and family. "What would you know, you're a man?!" I speak on behalf of my partner and I believe in her fully, in HER choice (though I strongly agree) to have as little intervention as possible (including drugs) and I have faith that she is strong enough and aware enough of her body to get through without them. The pain of childbirth is not life-threatening - an obstetrician missing his next round of golf is life-threatening. Call me cynical. "CYNICAL!!!" It saddens me that people willingly go through one of the most significant moments of their life in a sterile, daunting, impersonal and infectious environment like a hospital but more so that you're a freakazoid hippie motherf#!@er if you don't.