Why homebirth, again

You probably remember that Laurel was born at home. I gave my reasons for choosing homebirth in a previous post, but I've had several people ask me how it worked out. I guess that although I wrote a little bit about the birth itself, I didn't specifically address the homebirth aspect.

So let me give you the brief answer: having a homebirth was terrific!

The birth itself, as I've said, was humbling. I had known it would be hard work, and I had prepared for it, but it ended up being much harder than I had expected. The challenge of it shocked me. It was like I had diligently prepared to spend a week white-water rafting but ended up going over Niagara Falls instead -- it was a much shorter, faster, and more intense trip!

My main issue wasn't the pain, exactly, but the feeling that I didn't know what to do about the pain. I felt like the skills for handling it were just out of my reach, and I was confused and uncertain trying to figure out the correct strategy. I felt like I was in pain because I was doing things wrong. (And I hate to be wrong.)

Anyway, I had expected to feel one of two things (or maybe a combination of both) regarding homebirth once it began: (1) deep satisfaction at being at home in my own safe nest, or (2) nagging anxiety at being away from the hospital. But the fact that I was giving birth in my own bedroom never crossed my mind. Being at home felt so natural (as in normal or everyday) that I didn't even think about it. Sure, we had been planning a homebirth for the previous 25 weeks, but I had never expected that it would feel so completely like a non-issue.

Maybe my terrible uncertainty about how to proceed through labor would have been worse in the hospital, or maybe it was overwhelming enough that I wouldn't have noticed my environment even if I had been giving birth on the moon.

Don't get me wrong -- during this birth I was grateful to be at home, as I was during my labor with Isaac, and if anyone had suggested that we go to the hospital, I would have protested, as I did with Isaac. I was absolutely glad to be giving birth at home and I would absolutely choose to do it again. At the time it just didn't seem remarkable in any way.

Besides my successfully avoiding unnecessary medical interventions, there were additional benefits to giving birth at home: it was familiar, comfortable, convenient, family-friendly, all that nice cozy stuff. I think this atmosphere, coupled with the gentleness of Laurel's delivery, contributed to the ease of my physical and emotional recovery, not to mention my immediate adjustment to having another child and bonding with her.

And I didn't have to give birth on my front steps attended by paramedics, which almost certainly would have happened if we'd planned a hospital birth. My labor moved into high gear so swiftly that we would never have made it to the hospital on time. Heck, we wouldn't even have made it to the car.