I live in Brisbane, I work part-time as an accountant. I identify as a white Australian.
My first baby was born in a private hospital under the care of a private OB. My second baby was born at home. I was 32 for my first birth and 35 for my second.
I chose to birth at home as I wanted to be in charge of my pregnancy and birth. To not have anyone trying to frighten me into doing things their way solely for their convenience. To not have a constant parade of people into my room after a night of birthing a baby and no sleep needing to observe/talk to me. And I wanted the safest possible birth for my baby and myself.
I had a midwife-assisted homebirth. There is no publicly funded homebirth in my state. Neither Medicare or our private health insurance cover homebirth so we paid for everything ourselves – just over $4,000.
My first birth was not traumatic as such, a vaginal birth, no interventions, no drugs. The care and advice that I received prior to the birth was appalling and 5 years later I am still very angry about how I was treated. This lack of care and respect motivated me to find another way to birth and I found homebirth.
My family or friends have no history of homebirthing, until I started researching I had never met anyone who had birthed at home.
Tweet