I read an article defending Kate Middleton's desire to use hypnobirthing and water to aid her in a natural birth from those (usually other women) who mock her as being naive and noticed similarities to a lot of the comments I and other women receive when we've talked about similar birth plans.

When I told people we were planning a homebirth for DD2 I got so many comments about being "brave" and "what if something goes wrong?" Lots of questions about why, what about pain relief, and so on. This time, nothing. If anything, people avoid asking me my birth plans at all. And I know it's deliberately done. As in, I'll hear discussion in great detail with another pg mum right beside me who their ob is, which hospital, last labour details, etc, etc. This is mostly at groups I regularly participate in with DD2. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions and they all just assume I'll definitely be having a homebirth since they remember how well it went last time.

Why do women generally want to share horror stories, or warn pg mums about everything that can go wrong and generate so much fear around labour and birth? It'd be like telling someone planning their wedding that it'll probably rain, it'll feel awful and uncomfortable standing there in front of all those people, but at least it's only a day and you'll eventually get over it!

I always try to build pg women up, especially first time mums. And I'm equally interested in their plans, whatever they are.

Why the negative comments out there?