Am I advocating home birth?

I had a student who was referred to me by a local OB. She expressed interest in homebirth from our first meeting. I gave her referrals, but she never called them. We had another student in class who had a homebirth with her last baby and was planning another homebirth this time. The last class came and S. (who by now had hired me as her doula) still was curious about homebirth. I said that if she was really interested she should take the time to call and interview some midwives and just see what all her choices really were. Then decide what was best for her!

When I went for my last prenatal visit with her, she told me that they had changed to a homebirth! They were so excited. S. said she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. J

Two days later I got a phone call from her OB. She wanted to know if I was advocating homebirth. She was upset that S. had left her care. I thought about all that had transpired from my very first meeting with S.. I knew that really it was S. that made the choice to change. I shared information and referrals.

I don’t advocate homebirth or hospital birth. I advocate moms doing research and making the best choices for them!

I called the OB back and after a few days of phone tag we finally got to talk. It was actually a very nice discussion. She admitted that S had been asking her questions about home birth and birth centers from before ever taking my classes. I offered to send her a syllabus of what I cover in class. I said that it was likely having another homebirth mom in class that really encouraged her to look into homebirth. I said I hope she still felt comfortable referring her patients to me, but if she didn’t to please refer them to the Hypnobabies Home Study program!

(This is one of the moms who I went to the back to back births… I will post her birth story soon!)