Hi Salsa, I had 3 babies in NZ, know what you're saying about the funded homebirth over there.

A couple of clients I have supported for VBAC over here (I'm a doula) have also hired a Private Midwife. The plan was, the midwife would accompany the woman while she laboured at home, and because the mw can check the baby's heartbeat (a doula can't do that - but parents of course can hire a doppler and do that if they want), there's that extra reassurance that all is well. I remember reading about a UK midwife who commented, "with regards to the risk of uterine rupture, I would rather have the focussed, one-to-one care of a midwife who really knows and gets me, to observe the early signs of possible rupture or dehiscence, that be in an institution where reliance is placed on a machine to pick that up."

The beauty of hiring a midwife to support you at home while you labour during your VBAC, is that you have a couple of routes open to you and you don't have to make the call until you're in that moment:

1. You can stay at home as long as possible, with the skilled support of a midwife who specialises in keeping birth normal and safe, and possibly also with a doula who specialises in emotional support and confidence. And then when you feel it's the right time, transfer to the hospital with both these angels alongside every step of the way. In the hospital, the midwife's role changes to one of support only, however, her clinical skill still is there to help you make wise decisions.

2. Since your midwife is with you, if at the last minute you think, "I'm confortable here, I'm feeling confident - I don't want to move!" - you can stay put and have your baby at home. It might even be in your birth pool.

I have had one client choose the first option and one choose the second option. The nice thing about hiring your own midwife to support you for your VBAC is that BOTH options remain open to you, and you don't have to make the call until you're in that moment - at which point you really do know which route is the right one for you.

One of my clients who chose to hire a midwife decided that she could not afford to hire me as well, so in a sense I "did myself out of job" but when I got the happy news of how she gave birth at home in her own loungeroom I was so happy.