Also, following from Meow's points, I think that whenever you have to birth in hospital you *need* to be aware of the staff around you trying to intervene (whether that be to have CTG, BP, catheter, internals and so on), you cannot just let go. I am not sure that i would even be able to just 'let go' even with my IM at my side. I would still feel that i would need to protect myself and the baby and our birth while in there...even if there is a 'hands off' approach. because I am not in my space, i am in theirs. The thing with having a baby at home, and i do feel that this is hard for those that do not have or have never had a planned birth at home is that when you do finally go into labour, you completely surrender: and that is the greatest, most empowered feeling i have ever personally experienced. People mention that they dont need to go to hospital, they dont need to disrupt the birth to move to the hospital but that really, is not what it is about, it is much much deeper. with a homebirth you create your birth space, you prepare for it. you dont just turn up to it and make do with what is on offer. every living animal works towards creating a safe birth space and we should be no different and since having had 2 HBs i now realise just how important that is to birth process as well.