My birth - which was my first - was a home birth, which also became a waterbirth.
I was pretty determined to have a home birth for many reasons, but mostly being because I feel the most comfortable in my home where as hospitals stress me out, and because my pregnancy was low risk I felt absolutely fine doing it, some relatives on the other hand didn't have a great first reaction when we told them, because it isn't the 'norm' But now they saw the outcome and how happy I was with my homebirth and that nothing 'bad' happened, they are all supporters now.
I LOVED being able to give birth at home. Despite some complications (baby wasn't in position which led to some drawn out, painful labouring, but my wonderful midwife Clare managed to turn her around. After that only half of my cervix had moved out of the way so CLare had to go in during a contraction and push the other half out of the way, not fun, but it enabled me to have a vaginal birth) I delivered my baby and she was never in distress and came out great. I know that if had I been at a hospital, because of the long labour, position of my baby, and then the cervix still being in the way, I may not have had the drug-free vaginal birth I was hoping for.
That being said, I went into the homebirth knowing that transferring to a hospital was a possibility, so I planned for that scenario as well.
Next time I will be planning a homebirth again. I loved being in my own environment, being able to move around, eat if I felt like it etc. And afterwards it was wonderful to slip into my own bed, with my new baby, and not have to worry about things like paperwork, driving home, strangers etc.
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