I totally agree with Brooke and appreciate her honesty regarding her feelings about home/natural/water births. They do sound ideal and excellent in theory, and God bless anyone that can do it. Childbirth is a natural human experience; unfortunately, as Annie said, so is dying during childbirth. Let’s face it, if childbirth were all natural, there would be no need for hospital intervention in the first place. What if the mother begins experiencing rapid blood loss? What if the baby isn’t breathing and needs to be hooked up to oxygen? What if serious complications come about and an emergency c-section is necessary? Emergencies pop up during labor and birth all the time, and by the time necessary medical intervention comes, it may be too late. What people do is their own choice, but in my opinion, there are far too many “what if?” scenarios for me to even consider not giving birth in a place where I would feel most comfortable. For me, that place is a hospital where I could be assured that if anything went wrong with myself or my child, help would be a step away.

I appreciate Brooke’s perspective. Childbirth is natural, but so is women dying during childbirth. For ages women (and babies)have died during childbirth. Modern medicine helps to prevent this natural occurrence. For this reason, I think it is important to be flexible with your birth plans and be aware that things might not go as planned. Natural birth may sound wonderful, but at the end of the day, the focus should be on keeping mommy and baby alive and healthy.

I had to chime in on the natural birth topic. I’ve had two of them, both in hospital. The first was a fight – I had the point-by-point birth plan (which basically sent the message that I didn’t trust my doctor or the hospital) and went to a hospital with zero experience or respect for a drug-free delivery. I actually had a crowd watching me deliver, because they’d never seen one before and were curious! The second time, my wonderful new doctor read the same point-by-point birth plan and advised me to put it away, and write a new one to the effect of “I want a natural delivery. Please do everything you can to make that possible.” The hospital I switched to knew what that meant – and did.

The experiences were so different, and the key was that, the second time, I knew to seek a medical team that I trusted. If my second doctor told me I needed a c-section, or to be induced (I actually went into labor the night before my scheduled induction, a week late) I was ready to trust her fully. She was also a key ally in helping to remind the nurses that we were doing this differently (there was a shift change, and the new nurse started yelling, “1, 2, 3 . . .” during a contraction – my doctor just looked at her and said quietly, “We’re not counting”). I think trust is the most important thing of all.

I highly recommend “Birthing from Within” for anyone thinking of a natural birth, particularly if you’ve had a different or bad experience before.

I don’t have time to post my whole traumatic first birth experience with my son.. but I will say that you SHOULD demand to have your wishes heard and met. In a country like Holland where I live now, it’s all gungho about home births, natural as possible etc. I HAD to go to hospital as my son was 14 days overdue and not allowed to be born at home. Once you enter the hospital you basically write your body away to other people and have to hope for the best. Nothing went as I wanted, which yeah, I know that is how life is sometimes, but looking back there were things they could have done to make the experience better for our family.

I def want to see this movie!

I really like brooke, one of my favorite blogs to read. She seems so down to earth and nice, and most of all honest. I had heard before that her 2 oldest daughter were born early, she was on bed rest with neriah for awhile and still had her 5 weeks early and she weighed 4lbs 12oz, and than sierra was early too and weighed 5lbs 2oz.

I agree with brooke home births are nice, but I personally feel safer in a hospital because you just never know what can go wrong, you may want a natural birth but end up needing a c-section, and the hospital for me feels the most safe for me and my child. Considering all 3 of her children were born early, I’m think this baby might be born in Feb. I can’t wait to see if it’s a boy or girl this time.

Well said, Brooke!!

I love Brooks’ blog. I’m not pregnant but I feel like I can relate to her a lot anyway. She’s so down to earth. And her advice is very noteworthy.

I agree with Brooke that you need to develop a birth plan and educate yourself about the process of labor and childbirth. However, I think it is a bit naive to believe that you have any control over how your labor starts, proceeds and how you will birth your baby.

I think the best thing that you can do is educate yourself and have a good birth attendant (be it a midwife or OB) so that you can make the best informed decision in conjunction with your healthcare team as things develop.

Believe me, I had a midwife, doula, supportive husband, great labor and delivery nurses and was physically and mentally prepared for labor and childbirth. My water broke 3 weeks before my due date and when labor did not start on its own I needed to be induced. I was in labor for 48 hours without pain medication and even labored in the birthing tub but never achieved 10cm dilation and the pushing stage. I ended up having a c section and believe me that was not in my birth plan!

I think the idea of a home birth sounds great in theory – however i do not believe it is always the safest option (it would not have been for me) and therefore I think women should remain open minded about childbirth because anything can happen. When you have your heart set on a certain scenario it is extremely difficult when things go differently.

I’m still hoping they will share what they did with the placenta from her last pregnancy (there was a photo of them leaving the hospital, and her husband was carrying a box marked “placenta”).