Why do parents who don't need the money go back to work?

[Previously published for sfgate.com/moms]

I was talking to a mom at a baby shower who explained why she chose to go back to work even though she didn't need the money. As she told me the story, tears swelled up in her eyes. She works at a company that offers a year maternity leave (amazing, I know). She took the full year with her first child but returned to work after three months with the second. She said that she couldn't handle it. Two kids were too much for her. She felt like she would snap at any moment. So she hired someone to do the job for her. She said that she feels really guiltly about her decision.

The reality of her situation saddens me. People have kids but don't want to do the work or feel someone else could do a better job. She loves her children but she can't be with them all day long. My interest in her story stems from my own mom not wanting to be with me or my two siblings. My mom left my dad and the three of us young children when I was only four years old. She gave my dad custody and went to live in Florida to get her Ph.D.

Maybe it's good that my friend at the baby shower went to work. If that's what keeps a family together, then so be it.

Diaper Free Baby. Well, Not Yet!

I swear, once you start to put your baby on the potty, you'll never turn back. I have bought a ton of different types of diapers: custom cloth from San Francisco's East Bay Jessica

here

, cheapish cloth diapers from Green Mountain Diapers

here

, biodegradable diapers

here

, and

Huggies

from Lucky's down the street. And, nothing compares to NO diapers at all!

When West has to go poop, he works on it for a good hour and sometimes three hours if he is on his back in bed. I was getting no sleep listening to him grunt and moan for three hours. At first, I thought that he needed to burp. So, I picked him up for a burp and he pooped. It turns out that laying flat on your back isn't the best position for pushing a poop out or a baby for that matter. Plus apparently, we can't pee or poop in our sleep. We have to be awake for the bowels to open. I believe it. If I potty West right when he wakes-up, his diaper is often dry.

It all started when

Lydia

told me about a friend of hers who pees her baby in her sink when she comes over for a visit. It sounds completely unladylike but putting manners aside for a moment, pee is sterile and is okay for the kitchen sink. So, no big deal?

I asked Lydia if she knew of any books on the subject and she pointed me to

Diapers Free

, which she remembered seeing at her

pediatrician's office

. I checked it out from the library and read it. Serendipitously, I received an email about an Elimination Communication (i.e. Diapers Free) workshop in San Francisco by

Willow Lune

. I signed up. I was curious.

I decided to do a 24-hour trial period before the workshop. My first goal was to "catch" West's nighttime poop so that I could get some sleep. So, when he woke me up in the middle of the night with his groaning and moaning, I took off his diaper and held him in a squat position over a cloth diaper. I can tell if he has to go because his penis is sticking up and looks full. Sure enough, he pooped and peed right away and we happily went back to sleep. I didn't have to clean up a sloppy mess of poop smeared all over his butt either. Now I use a potty and not the cloth diaper and I have less laundry!

Once he is over the toilet, he poops. It's like he waits for it. I don't catch a lot of his pees right now, but I am hoping to as I get use to this new method of diapering or should I say not diapering. I catch the obvious pees like after nursing and first thing in the morning.

Ah yes, I have been pooped and peed on, but it has only been once or twice and isn't much worse than a diaper blowout, which I just had to clean up this morning because I was too tired to poop West in the potty. After changing the bed and doing laundry, I'm motivated again to listen to his cues and put him on the potty. Putting West on the potty isn't much different than reminding a toddler to go to the bathroom at key transitions in the day like before leaving the house, before bed and in the morning.

The concept seems outlandish, but when I started thinking about what most of the world does for diapering babies, it totally makes sense. Most places don't have a Lucky's down the street with

Huggies

. And the people living in these places don't have the money to spend on diapers. They carry their babies close to them and learn their signs for peeing and pooping.

Yes, I realize that we don't live in India or Tibet but baby instincts are the same. Babies don't want to defecate on themselves. What animal pees and poops on themselves and sits in it for hours.

When I asked Zack this question, he answered, "worms." I responded, "I think worms are insects." Actually, we are both wrong. In any case, I think that we can agree that worms are a far cry from human babies.

I mean really, the more that I think about it, the more that it grosses me out. Would I want to sit in my poop? Diapers are a convenience of modern life for adults. I bet if the babies could talk, they would have something to say about it.

West is five weeks old and wears diapers. I take them off like I would pants when he has to pee or poop. He still sits in his pee sometimes if he is sleeping but it's less now. And, I do hope to have him out of diapers by his first birthday.

Now if only I can get my three-year old out of his nighttime diaper.

Should I Follow My Own Rules?

[Published previously for SFGate.com/moms]

I think that everyone can agree that one kid grabbing a toy from another kid's hands is a big "no,no." Now I ask, what about me (mommy) snatching an open magic marker from Mikey? I have done it before. But it felt hypocritical. Why should I expect him not to take what he wants when I demonstrate the opposite? If it's not life threatening, it can be a perfect learning opportunity and a way to treat him like a sensitive human being.

If I really believe in talking it out and asking for things rather than taking them, then I need to practice what I preach. And so, now I do.

I put my hands together like I am begging for food and kneel down right in front of him. I look at him in the eyes and I am very serious. I say, "Mikey, please give mommy the marker. We only draw on paper. Mommy wants to put the marker away until art time. Please give mommy the marker." He normally drops it gently into my open hands and I say, "thank you." Or, he says, "thank you, Mikey," which means that I should say it. If he refuses then I tell him that I am going to take it on the count of three if he doesn't give it to me. It isn't quite playground rules but I do recognize that I do need to make executive decisions sometimes.

These moments allow me to practice being present. I stop whatever I am doing and embrace the moment. I remain separated emotionally but completely focused on it. These moments don't last more than a few minutes but they are intense and a great spiritual practice. It takes a lot of will power for Mikey to give up the marker and for me not to take the easy way out and grab it from him. Mikey always runs away from the ordeal quite happy and content with himself. And, I save my walls. It's a win win!

Helping with the dishes

If Mikey is begging me to play and the dishes are piling up, I put him to work. Including him in everyday chores is easy and he loves it. In this picture, I am just to his left washing dishes. I made a tub of soapy water and pass him dishes. When he starts getting bored of a dish I say, "Thanks, that one looks done; here's another one. " Sometimes it morphs into water play with two objects. Often, I finish the dishes and he still wants to play with his tub of water.

I always put a towel under him because water never stays in the tub.

Good Communication Skills

[Published previously for SFGate.com/moms]

If Mikey wants something and it conflicts with what I want, I can be sure that the conversation won't end there.

Here's a scenerio: Mikey is standing on a foot stool in the pantry holding the jar of fig bars. We are just about to sit down to dinner and he wants yet another fig bar. So, I say, "Mikey wants another fig bar. Yep, I hear you sweety, you want another bar." His shoulders relax and his face softens and he nods his head. Then I say, "Mikey, you've already had two fig bars, no more, just two."

Most of the time he'll repeat back, "just two." And sometimes we'll do the scenerio again or I'll have to look for a compromise like asking him if he'd like to start eating dinner a little before papa gets home.

What amazes me about this scene is that it works every time no matter what the conflict. By just repeating back to him what he wants, he is soothed into listening. The poor guy just wants to know that he is understood. Don't we all!

Write for Choice!

Here's me on KPOO radio yesterday campaigning for Certified Professional Midwives to be included in the Obama Health Care Reform bill. That's my cute little red-headed baby with me.

When looking into using a midwife for my pregnancy and delivery, I wondered what the difference was between a Certified Professional Midwife and a Certified Nurse Midwife. Here's my unofficial knowledge of the differences:

Certified Professional Midwives specialize in out-of-hospital births like at a birth center or a private home. Certified Professional Midwives can only work outside of hospitals; and therefore, have a lot of experience with low-tech, unmedicated births.

Certified Nurse Midwives specialize in hospital births and are licensed to work in hospitals. Certified Nurse Midwives have gone through more schooling than Certified Professional Midwives. The extra schooling allows them to work in hospitals. Most of their experience comes from working with mamas in a hospital setting, so they are more familiar hospital births than out-of-hospital births.

---------

Health Care Reform

Certified Nurse Midwives are currently included in the first draft of the Health Care Reform bill, but Certified Professional Midwives are not. Certified Professional Midwives are licensed by their states and should be added to the list of Medicaid-eligible providers recognized at the federal level.

Because I had such a fabulous prenatal, birth, and postnatal experience with a Certified Professional Midwife, I would like to see them included in Obama's Health Care Reform bill. Around 50% of births are paid for by Medicaid users. Medicaid only covers Certified Nurse Midwives not Certified Professional Midwives.

I would like to see women given more choice. And so, I am working to get Certified Professional Midwives covered by Medicaid. It's one sentence in the bill. If you're interested in helping, please go

here

to the MAMA Campaign to send a letter to Boxer, Feinstein, and Pelosi.

Please send your letter this weekend because they're moving fast on the hill and we want our voices heard.

More choices for women!

Listen to me and midwife Maria Iorillo on KPOO radio Thurs. July 16th

Midwives and Mothers talking about Health Care Reform and how Certified Professional Midwives can be a part of the solution!

I'll be there because I've had both a hospital birth and a birth under the care of a Certified Professional Midwife. Listen to my birth story and what care I prefer and why. Plus, listen to one of the most experienced San Francisco midwives, Maria Iorillo, talk about Certified Professional Midwives and our nations health care reform.

It's this Thursday, July 16th, from 12noon to 1pm PST on Reality Sandwich, KPOO, 89.5.

Tune in on your radio if you live in San Francisco or listen from the Internet at http://www.kpoo.com/hearus.html. Click on the jukebox image on the right.

Wisdom of Inconsistency

{Published earlier for SFGate.com/moms]

I remember my mom killing herself to keep everything equal between the three of us children. As parents, we are told that it is important to be consistent.

I was relieved to read in Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, by Dr. Sarah J. Buckley that it is okay to be inconsistent because it's human nature. Have I ever cancelled an engagement or changed my mind about something? I feel relieved because it's hard work trying to line up the way Zack does things and the way that I do them. Buckley says:

Consistency between parents is artificial and unnecessary. ...I also believe that we can have different attitudes, thresholds, and responses, yet still parent together with ease.

I no longer have that nagging voice in my head saying that I am doing this whole mothering thing wrong when I let Mikey make a huge mess with the packaging poppers one day and not let him do it again the next day. Each day is different, each moment is different. Sometimes I feel more tolerant than other times.

If I say no to another book because I am tired from a day of fun with my little bundle of joy, but papa wants to read one more, fine. I don't need to feel like we're giving in to Mikey's attempt to delay bedtime.

Mikey is learning that at different times people are willing or unwilling to oblige. Buckley says, "Our children know that we will respond differently because we are different people. We don't want them to manipulate those differences, but it's okay to do things differently."

Since I have let go of the feeling that I need to be consistent, I feel more real and honest. Inconsistency has allowed Mikey to see more of me as a person and less of me as an authoritarian mom. I hope that he is learning how to be more true to himself as well.

Another grassroots campaign to include Certified Professional Midwives in Obama's Health Care Reform Bill

Watch this youtube to learn more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps7WANXhZXA&feature=related

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign empowers midwife advocates and moms/dads groups as they promote increased access to out-of-hospital maternity care and the Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) who are specially trained to provide it.

Our dedicated campaigners, or "Pushers" as they are affectionately known, help to educate the people in power (at the insurance companies, in the hospital associations, in the Statehouses, and on Capitol Hill) about the reduced costs and improved outcomes associated with using out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are specially trained to provide it.

The Big Push campaign works to widely share the stories of U.S. citizens who choose CPMs as their maternity care providers and the multiple benefits to society that come from fully integrating out-of-hospital birth and Certified Professional Midwives into the health care systems of our states.

July 2009 Article on Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs)

A July 2009 article on Certified Professional Midwives, politics and health care reform!

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=delivering_affordable_healthcare

I live on a relocated cemetery

[Written previously for SFGate.com/moms]

This Friday I was alone in my apartment. Husband and 2-year old were elsewhere for the night. I had a nice night out: yoga and dinner. I cleaned up that day's breakfast and the rest of the house from 11pm to midnight. I lay in bed alone. I fell asleep and then awoke two hours later because I felt someone holding my hand. I don't think that I've slept alone, I mean really alone for two plus years. So, I thought maybe I was just imagining that Zack was in bed with me, but I woke to the same feeling every two hours until finally morning came. Much of the Richmond District was a graveyard. The Encyclopedia of San Francisco says:

Golden Gate Cemetery was created in 1868 on about 200 acres purchased by the city north of Clement between 33rd and 43rd avenues. It was also known as Clement Street Cemetery and the City Cemetery. In 1909, it was turned into Lincoln Park Golf Course. It is unknown how many remains were moved, and several hundred were discovered when the Palace of the Legion of Honor was being renovated in the 1990s.

My house was part of a housing development put on top of an old cemetery, one of "The Big Four" cemeteries. After we moved into our house and started digging in the garden, we found a large piece of a tombstone. If they forgot to remove a piece of tombstone, what else did they forget? My neighbor has a fully intact tombstone in her yard. She calls it, "Our New Yorker." He was a pioneer from New York. Although she jokes about it, she confessed that she got holy water from a church and poured it over the top. I am starting to think that I should do the same thing.

It was like people were hanging out in my house, but I couldn't see them. Like trying to sleep with someone watching you. Or, trying to sleep with the lights on. They weren't mean or unfriendly just there. I've felt them before with Zack home but somehow I was able to ignore them better. Friday night was a haunted, sleepless night. I am glad that I've got a full house again.

My Baby

"This is MY baby. This is MY baby," I repeated over and over in my head right before each wave to push consumed me. The urges were so strong that I felt like I could loose my breath completely.

The sun shown bright and I listened to the neighborhood children play outside as I labored calmly in my birth tub. I had wonderful rests between surges where I listened to birds and dosed off to sleep. My doula whispered, "You are having a beautiful birth, Thais."

I was, but I also struggled with doubt the whole time. I was scared that I might not be able to pull it off. Even when West's head had crowned, I thought that he would get stuck and

Maria

would have to transport me to the hospital for another cesarean. And then, the hospital would have birthed by baby not me. But somehow, I managed to overcome those doubts right before each surge with my simple chant, "This is MY baby." Sometimes I would say, "Let's just get through this next one. Just one more."

The realization that only I can birth my baby in the way that I want was an on going theme for me throughout my pregnancy. People that I felt dependent on and wanted at my birth didn't work out for one reason or another. Even Maria had to go lobby in Washington on my due date, and I had to come to terms with the fact that she might not be there for the birth. Luckily, West came when she got back. I am so grateful for that.

For my first son's birth, subconsciously, I always thought that I'd be saved like Cinderella is saved from her evil step-sisters. I assume that it is a cultural message ingrained in my psyche since I was a little girl. It's important to have support, but the reality is that only the Mama can birth the baby. It is hard to be alone on such a hard journey, but the belief that I could do it and my two years of preparation allowed the baby to come. I pushed as hard as I possibly could. I wanted him to arrive protected at home and in peace.

"This is MY baby," I chanted over and over again to myself. And I did push him out. He came right out like he should. It took only one hour of pushing after seven hours of active labor. Baby West was born at home on a gorgeous, sunny day. His demeanor is as peaceful and calm as the way that he joined us. And, he is so loved by me and so many others who have followed my recovery from my first son's birth to the discovery and actualization of a home birth with my second. When Maria put him on my chest, I rejoiced, "I did it! I did it!"

Kara

, my doula, cried with joy next to me as she listened to my reaction. I feel so powerful. Birth really is empowering.

As I celebrated holding my new baby in my arms and watching him nurse perfectly without any instruction. Maria said, "Now that is an unmedicated baby." After a brief celebration, Maria was looking serious again because I still had not birthed my placenta. We waited an hour and tried everything from angelica root, to nursing, to a shot of pitocin. Finally Maria had to make the decision to call 911 and have an ambulance transport me to UCSF. I needed a manual removal of the placenta. It was only Maria's fifth ambulance transport in her 23.5 years of being a midwife. Four of the five transports were placenta related.

Maria can perform the procedure herself, but since I had had a previous cesarean the chance of hemorrhaging was too risky. The procedure at UCSF was short and I was back at home shortly afterward. I am happy to have had a good hospital experience rather than one of a victim. It was a necessary part of my healing.

As Maria and I waited for Zack to pull the car around in the quiet lobby of the hospital at midnight, she said, "This is what home birth is all about, it's a collaboration with the hospitals. We come to them when we need their services and we only use what we need."

Please join the MAMA Campaign to help lobby to include Certified Professional Midwives in the Obama's Health Care Reform bill.

Born at Home! Welcome home baby West.

All went well and I had my beautiful baby at home on my side of the bed. I used the tub but it wasn't where I chose to birth my baby for whatever reason. I was in active labor for seven hours and pushed for one hour. He latched on right away and I had a glorious hour with him before I had to go to the hospital for a manual removal of my placenta. The procedure was short and I was back home in bed with my baby shortly afterward. I feel like the hospital experience was a vital part of my healing, but I am glad that it was a short and relatively easy visit.

I am writing a more detailed birth story for this blog and

Maria

's blog. It will still be abbreviated. I really need to write a book to cover the full two years of my experience.

I am sure happy to be on the other side and to have had a successful and joyful birth experience. What a load off! Time to move on but not from the home birth community; I am here to stay.

West weighed 8lbs. 10 oz. He was 21 1/4 inches long. And, had a head of 13 3/4 circumference.

More about my home birth journey

here

.

Midwifery and Health Care Reform

Three San Francisco midwives are going to DC this week to speak with key Senate staffers from Boxer and Feinstein's offices about how Certified Professional Midwives can be an important solution to the difficulties with American maternity care. Obama's three health care reform principles include: reducing costs, guaranteeing options and providing affordable, quality care to all Americans. Midwifery can do all three!

Here are two videos taken at Maria Iorillo's home to help promote Midwifery in Health Care Reform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4atqJNTmPrs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeYQrDzB2lY

Subscribe to the Mama Campaign to support the purpose. Numbers of subscribers is important when lobbying.
http://www.mamacampaign.org/

2008 San Francisco Department of Vital Statistics for Birth

These are the official Mode of Delivery rates for San Francisco Hospitals in 2008.

The Categories are

Primary (first baby)
C/S (cesarean)
Repeat C/S (repeat cesarean)
Forceps
Vacuum
Spontaneous (natural vaginal birth)
VBAC (Vaginal Birth after C/S)

This is the percentage breakdown based on total births at that hospital.

This is public information.

Hospital	Primary Cesarean	Repeat Cesarean	Total Cesarean
CPMC	20.6%	10.3%	30.9%
Kaiser	24.2%	7.5%	31.7%
SF General Hospital	11.8%	8.8%	20.6%
St. Lukes	11.5%	9.0%	20.5%
UCSF	18.8%	8.2%	27%

Hospital	Forceps	Vacuum	Spontaneous
CPMC	1.8%	7.6%	58.5%
Kaiser	0	2.7%	64.7
SF General Hospital	1.1%	4.6%	72.8%
St. Lukes	.4%	3.4%	75.7%
UCSF	4.3%	3.1%	64%

Hospital	VBAC
CPMC	1.3%
Kaiser	.9%
SF General Hospital	1.9%
St. Lukes	.1%
UCSF	1.7

Are you scheduled?

My due date is tomorrow and I can't believe that what inspired me to write a post tonight is induction of labor. Since I am looking fairly large, many people ask me, "When are you due?" I say, "Tomorrow." And, they say, "Oh, are you scheduled?"

By scheduled, I am assuming that they mean scheduled for induction of labor. I am truly surprised by the number of people who ask this question.

How did this become the socially acceptable response?

Why don't people say things like, "Oh that's wonderful, best of luck for a healthy baby."

As I write that phrase, I think to myself, "Of course, people must say that nice cliche phrase. "

Sadly, they really don't. Instead when they hear that my due date is tomorrow, their eyes pop out of their head and they look at me in dread and fear. They can't believe that I am at my son's swimming lesson or the grocery store or walking the Lyon St. steps.

Why do we react this way?

It is not beyond me that I am sheltered from our mainstream world of fear-based maternity care. If I were receiving care from an OBs office right now, I would surely be pressured to schedule an induction date or rather in my case a cesarean date (induction shouldn't be done with VBac mamas). I am so happy not to have that pressure and to be allowed the time and space to have my baby when my baby is ready to be born. I am certainly ready as most women are at 40 weeks. I hope he comes soon.

38 weeks: Birth Tub and Love

I am in a sweet spot of my pregnancy where everything is bliss. The seas are calm. I've had two nights this week of five to six hours of sleep without waking up. My birth tub is set-up and ready. I have been feeling practice labor every night from 7-11pm. I am ready and settling into waiting for baby West to join his family on the outside.

During Shavasana today, I had a practice contraction and it actually felt pleasurable. I hope that I can relax that much during labor to have an enjoyable experience. At least, I got a small glimpse of how that might work. I just can't wait to hold baby West in my arms. I want to feel him all wet and slippery with Vernix and watch him play with us for that brief hour of alertness before he goes to sleep for two weeks.

When I think of the name West, I think of hope. Traveling to the West into the unknown in search of a better life. I think of openess, vast space, and surrendering into trust, love, and kindness. All these qualities remind me of the characteristics of the sacred faminine and all our female spiritual leaders. Why would we name a boy West if all I think about is female qualities when I think of his name? Well, I can't imagine a better world than a world where yin and yang are once again equal and peace is with us all. When I think of the baby inside of me, I think of a soul with a great purpose in this life and I am honored to get him here.

37-week Home Visit

Maria Iorillo

, my home-birth midwife, came over to walk through our home to get a sense of the space where my baby will be born. We have to move a couple pieces of furniture; but otherwise, we are ready. All our supplies are labeled and in the birth room (our sun room/baby's nursery). I love this picture of Mikey listening to the baby's heart beat during my check-up.

Mikey crawled in between my legs multiple times reenacting birth. He was born by cesarean so maybe it's how he knows birth to happen through images that he has seen. Or, maybe he is acting out how he would have liked to be born. Maria suggested that I watch a movie called "What Babies Want." She said it has video clips of the same behavior that Mikey was doing while I was laying on the bed. Sort of interesting.

I had false labor last night. I thought that I'd have a baby this morning but no such luck. Zack's picking up the birth tub today so we'll be having a hot tub party in our sun room tonight to give it a test run before the big event.

An Account of a Home Birth Prenatal Appointment

Imagine never waiting in a waiting room for a prenatal appointment. Imagine entering the exam room and seeing a comfortable couch to sit on. Imagine never being asked to undress and wear a paper gown. Imagine never having to sit on an exam table waiting for your care provider to finally knock on the door and come in. Imagine resting comfortably and completely clothed on a couch and enjoying a pleasant conversation for an hour with your care provider. Now imagine bringing your parents to your appointment. Take it even further and imagine bringing your children.

I'd always go alone when I first started seeing Maria Iorillo for my prenatal care. We have a three-year old and it just made sense to have my husband stay home with him. My first pregnancy, I was use to waiting an hour or more for our prenatal appointments and then only visiting for ten minutes with our care provider. I would write out my questions before my appointment because it was nearly impossible to remember them all under the stress of knowing three other mommies were waiting for their hour late appointments too.

In Maria's office, I never wait. I am greeted right when I walk in the door and sit on a couch across from a small area with wooden toys including a lovely cradle with a baby doll in it. Maria didn't need to say that children were welcome at her appointments.

Right before my third trimester, I started asking the grandparents to watch Mikey so that Zack and I could both go the appointments. As I grew more and more comfortable with my long, stress-free appointments. I invited Mikey's grandparents to come and meet Maria. So one beautiful sunny San Francisco morning Mikey, Mikey's grandparents, Zack and I all showed up for my appointment.

Maria smiled and welcomed the grandparents and Mikey to sit on the love seat next to Zack and I. She didn't ignore them and continue with her routine appointment with us, but instead said, "When grandparents come to an appointment, I like to ask them to share their birth stories." So while Mikey played with the baby doll and peered out the window watching for each Muni train to pass taking its passengers to work. Zack's mom told Maria about the birth of each of her two children at Kaiser in San Francisco in the 70s. Then, Barbara asked Maria a couple of questions about newborn care right after birth and Maria took her time to answer them. I never felt like she was rushing them out nor annoyed by their presence. After about a half an hour, the grandparents left with Mikey and Zack and I finished our appointment with Maria by checking the baby's heartbeat, my blood pressure, pulse, and weight. After that wonderful experience, we now take Mikey with us every visit so that he can be apart of his brother's birth as well.

My other posts on home birth:

On my blog:

http://www.spinachandhoney.com/search/label/Home%20Birth

On SFGate:

Read some of my other posts about birth here, here, here, here and here,and here.

Home births 'as safe as hospital'

The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.

Read the full article at BBC News online:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998417.stm

Read more about this study in this opinion piece:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/annalisa-barbieri-i-gave-birth-at-home-ndash-and-heres-why-1669309.html