The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS, a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA

First Birth in the Hospital, Second Birth At Home

I'm responding to the question about Homebirth vs. Hospital and those who've had both.

I've had one of each. My first was in the hospital. Planned that way. I had a midwife who delivered my daughter (actually two midwives were with me). It was an easy birth-no drugs or cuts. But whenever the midwives were not looking those nurses put "hospital policy" to work. They laid me flat on my back. They took the baby. They wouldn't let me go home. There was no medical indications for their behavior. All the childbirth classes(hospital sponsored) talked about how progressive they were, etc. They weren't. But my midwife was and is progressive! So by the time I had baby #2 my midwife was doing Homebirth!!!! And I loved it!! I had a longer labor the second time and I'm sure that if I would have been in the hospital I would have had an unneeded C-section because of "hospital policy"! They put you on the Friedman curve and if you don't dilate so many centimeters per hour then you get Interventions/surgery. I would not have been happy with a C-section just because nobody was willing to wait.

I think WHO you have attending you is very important. If your OB is handling the actual birth is he going to do perineal massage??? Very few do it. But it is sooo important!!! Funny how OB's won't do the massage but they're more than eager to cut the perineum!!!(That cut is proven to cause lot's of problems for you) You have such a wonderful situation for a homebirth. Keep reading and searching your heart. If you really bond with this midwife it will make labor so much easier if you can keep her with you. Please find out more about what is routine in the hospital. When I look at my firstborn's first pictures, she's laying naked in an isolette or on the scale but not in my arms. So different from #2. What do you want for your first born????

"What if something goes wrong at home?" Many things go wrong at the hospital because of what they do to laboring women.