Hi Lee!

I had my baby at home with CMP Perth two weeks ago and it was great. I would highly recommend it to anyone! The relationship i developed with my midwife was amazing, She was the only one who could touch or speak to me during labour as i had so much trust in her (poor DH!)!! I had a hospital birth with DD, and while i didn't have a "bad" experience then, i would definately choose homebirth over hospital birth any day. I found with the homebirth i didn't "need" drugs because i knew they weren't an option, and this labour was no more painful than my first (with a patchy epidural and gas).
The reason i chose to have a homebirth was mainly because DD was afraid of me going to hospital (she is quite attached to me and probably just didn't want to have to be away from me for any length of time!).. I was quite worried about the safety of homebirths (due to ignorance about the subject!) so i got talking to a few local women who had recently had homebirths and found this really alleviated my fears and i decided to contact CMP to talk to a midwife to decide whether it was going to be the right option for me. We discussed all possible problems and solutions and i was satisfied that if something did go wrong transfer to Swans by ambulance would only take about 25 mins (i'm in the hills too).
In the end Archie was born in water after a 5.5 hour labour with no complications except a PPH afterwards which did not require any treatment. I got to have a shower in my own shower then get into my own bed with DH, DD and our beautiful new baby. I didn't have to deal with being on a ward with a heap of other screaming babies and other patients visitors coming and disturbing me and my rest. DH and i were not separated from eachother at any time, which was great. I had two midwives and a trainee midwife who all knew me and my history and my wishes for the birth. It was a really great experience and i am sad to think of the time when my main midwife will make her final visit to me!!

I recommend you read Ina May Gaskin's books as these were my bibles during pregnancy and really helped me through the birth.
I am hoping to have a chance to write my birthstory one of these days and hopefully encourage more women to have homebirths as, after mine, i feel it is actually safer to do it at home!

Hope that helps!! Sorry it is a bit all over the place, a bit distracted by a little squawking bubba!

Kym x