06/06/2026
Happy international homebirth day! Here are just a few reason why homebirth is amazing option for low risk families who choose it...
1. You can labor and birth in your own space.
One of the things I loved most about my birth was being able to do it at home. I could rest in my own bed, curl up on the couch and watch a movie, roll on the exercise ball, cook in my kitchen to pass the time, and pace in my own space. Seriously, itâs hard enough to p**p in a foreign place; imagine giving birth in one.
2.Your birth plan is respected.
Many women choose to give birth at home because they fear their birth plan will not be respected at a hospital â and rightly so. You can search high and low for the âperfectâ doctor to follow your âperfectâ birth plan, but when âB-Dayâ finally arrives, who knows which doctor will be working and what nurses youâll have. The last thing a birthing mama wants to do is argue over her birth plan, and unfortunately, this happens more than you might think.
3. You have continuity of care.
If you choose a homebirth, youâll work with the same midwife throughout your entire pregnancy. Instead of 7- to 10-minute appointments youâll have 60-minute appointments. A good midwife takes the time to know you and your baby, and this relationship establishes trust and a bond that is essential to a healthy birth and delivery. By the time your baby is born, youâre no longer strangers, which is a good thing. Whatâs more personal than a stranger checking out your hoo-ha? Which brings me to my next pointâŚ
4. Your hoo-ha will be relatively undisturbed during a homebirth â minus the baby thatâs about to come through it. There is nothing more frustrating than being on a hospital bed and having somebody you donât know constantly checking your lady parts.
5. You can birth in any position.
Ball, bed, bedroom floor, it doesnât matter. You want to squat against a wall, you can do it. You want to birth in the tub, have at it. You want to birth on your side, on all fours, or knees to face, go forth. Nobodyâs stopping you, and everybodyâs game.
6. You can eat, stuff your face, and stuff your face again. I knowâŚwomen who give birth at a hospital canât eat because of the insanely low risk of aspiration should a c-section be needed. But seriously, have you ever labored for 45 hours and tried to push a baby out on an empty stomach? Try running a triathlon on nothing but ice chips. When youâre at home, you are free to stuff your face, not because youâre craving a steak but because you need energy to finish the race.
7. A homebirth carries a substantially decreased risk of medical intervention. According to a large prospective study by the British Medical Journal, a homebirth substantially reduces the risk of obstetric interventions including forceps, vacuum extraction, episiotomy, epidural, and caesarean section.
8. A homebirth is just as safe (if not safer) than a hospital birth. A planned home birth attended by a licensed midwife is associated with very low and comparable rates of perinatal death, a 50% lower risk of pre-term birth, significantly lower rates of mother mortality, and a 97% birth experience satisfaction rate. The largest landmark study of U.S homebirths confirmed these findings and also included women who would normally have been considered high-risk (i.e., breech, VBAC, multiple gestations, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes).
9. You can have the best of both worlds.
Just because you give birth at home doesnât mean you canât have the benefits of a hospital, should you need one. A good midwife always comes equipped with a good emergency planâŚand the ability to recognize if and when you need to use it.
10. Women who have Homebirth have quicker recoveries. This could be due to the lack of intervention, or because the uterus shrinks faster without drugs, you can rest in your own bed without an interruption every five seconds, meals are home-cooked, long herbal baths soothe the wounds, or you have the intimate care of your companions.
