Have you or anyone you know birthed a baby in a non-hospital setting, and if so, what was the experience like?

Have you or anyone you know birthed a baby in a non-hospital setting, and if so, what was the experience like? Do you think the author's descriptions were accurate?

I gave birth to my last child in 1974 in the hospital, as I did the previous births. I opted for natural childbirth after my first delivery. I have met women who opted for home birth and described it as a positive experience. I also worked with a woman who was a practicing midwife and she loved that part of her life.

A dear friend gave birth to her 2nd child at home in the early-60s--by herself as she was in labor such a short time without help. She always said it was the easiest birth of her four, altho surely it wasn't planned. She had her others in the hospital.

no

My mother was a midwife and I can recall people coming to get her for the birth of children. I was left at home with my sister. So I didn't know anything about the experience. My mother certainly was not as "free thinking" as Grace. We never had any discussions about what she did.

Many people in my mother's generation gave birth at home under the supervision of the family doctor--so my answer is yes. Can't comment on the experience itself, though.

All 3 of my babies were delivered in a hospital but my grandmother told me she delivered her 4 children, including my mother, at home and had no problems with any of them. I forget if she said whether a midwife was involved but I imagine someone must have been there with her at the time. At least I hope so!

When considering this question I'd not thought that of course my mother was born at home on the ranch. I don't know if there were any birthing attendents, but she told the story of being premature. After birth she was wrapped and put into a shoe box and placed in the warmed open oven of the wood stove. She lived to be 89 years old.

Thinking of modern times, rather than my mother's and grandmother's generation in which home births were the norm, I have had a few friends and relatives who gave birth either at home or in a birthing center and all reported a positive experience.

We moved to the US when I was six months pregnant with our first child. If we'd stayed in the UK I could easily have had a home birth, a fair number of my friends did and some chose to have water births with a birthing pool provided by the National Health Service.

If we'd stayed in the UK, I think I would have opted for a hospital birth but with a midwife. I'd been meeting with the midwife every month for at least three months before we left (every two weeks I'd have an appointment alternating between doctor and midwife, and I kept my medical records in between - unlike in the US when I handed my medical records over at my first appointment and never saw them again!)

In the US I never contemplated a home birth. I doubt our health insurance would have allowed it, and even if it had I would have been extremely nervous about the potential out of pocket costs if I had had to be transported to the hospital in an emergency, whereas that was all covered on the NHS.

Yes when I lived in a commune one woman spoke lovingly of the births of her children & had photo's of the birth. This was in what seems to be the olden days before video cameras.. computers, phones that do everything......

I have never given birth in a home setting nor do I know anyone who has. I think if I could have had somebody like Grace I might have considered it.

No. The whole idea of it is scary to me!