Hi Icecream sorry it took so long to get back to you!

We decided to homebirth for a number of practical reasons but the initial urge was due to my hate of hospitals and clinical settings and strangers getting up close and personal with me, and my exposure to them!

My mum has passed on 10 years now so my primary midwife filled her role with lots of motherly comfort and advice and was absolutely lovely. We live an hour away from the hospital so driving in car through kangaroo country in the middle of the night in an area where the ambulances are so few that people die frequently while waiting, was also another big concern. Plus at the time I was living up here while hubby worked in Melb all week long, so I was expecting to be on my own when labour began too. But the comforts of being in my own space, with midwives who I had become to know extremely well, and who were supportive of all my choices and weren't going to pull me out of the pool, or artificially break my waters, who were going to support my perineam instead of cut it open, all of that was the most important for me. And as for the cost, yes expensive, but well worth it, and thanks to the baby bonus we weren't out of pocket at all. Are you in my belly buddies group? I think we are both roughly same gestation, I'm just over 12 wks now...