My daughter was born in my bathroom and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I wanted a homebirth with my daughter but my partner was adamantly against it. He insisted that there would be a huge mess to clean up and was nervous about any possible complications. I, on the other hand, desperately wanted a homebirth after a terrible hospital experience at the birth of my son. I’d had a ton of what I felt were unnecessary interventions- pitocin, episiotomy, forceps, etc. At the end of that experience, especially because I’d opted for an epidural against my original intentions, I truly did not feel as if I had birthed a baby. I felt very disconnected from the process and I wanted the next time to be different. As a compromise, we agreed that I would have the baby at the hospital with a doula present. A doula is an assistant who provides support for a woman during labor.  She can also act as an advocate for the family’s wishes while in the hospital. That was the plan.

The day I went into labor my contractions were very sporadic, with contractions 15-30 minutes apart and not painful, only uncomfortable. I phoned my doula just to let her know tonight would probably be the night. When she offered to come over just to see how I was doing and tell me if it was time to go to the hospital, I insisted it was unnecessary. Thankfully, she decided to come over anyway. Somehow in the 20 minutes it took her to come over, my labor went into overdrive. By the time she got up the stairs, I told her that it felt like the baby was coming out. She immediately told my partner to call 911 and instructed me not to push. I told her that I was definitely not pushing, but the baby was coming out. We went into the bathroom so she could check me out and- this is the part no one believes- my daughters head popped out without pushing. After the doula instructed I pushed again and my daughter was born.

Having experienced both a hospital birth and a, albeit accidental, homebirth, I will always choose the latter. Nothing compares to the elation of delivering a baby naturally in the comfort of your own home. Studies have shown time and again that midwife-assisted homebirths are safer than hospital births in most cases. The Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada concluded that the rates of medical intervention rates like epidural, episiotomy, forceps, vacuum extraction, and caesarean section “were substantially lower than for low risk US women having hospital births.”

For more information, visit: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416

~Tiffany Kapri

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