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"Home birth by choice among healthy women in industrialized countries has been studied for four decades. There have been dozens of studies published. The largest to date, published in April in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, looked at more than 500,000 births to healthy women in the Netherlands and found that no more babies died among those who planned to give birth at home than those who chose the hospital. "The opinion that a hospital birth is the best option for every woman is increasingly being challenged," write the study's authors. "These results should strengthen the policies that encourage low-risk women . . . to choose their own place of birth."" - Shevonne from Bookmarklet

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A very close family friend (she stood up at our wedding) had her most recent child at home, quite successfully. I think there are clear advantages to home birth in some situations. In the end, I think the BIGGEST factor is the comfort of the mother - if a mother's in the environment that she chooses to be in, the chances of success are higher, even in a difficult situation. - Trent Hamm

Our daughter was born at home. It was safe and of course completely amazing. - metalerik

Delivery of our first child had... complications, resulting in emergency C-section. Had we been at home, I fear what the results would have been for both baby and mother. Our second delivery was for twins, and I'd like to think that any pregnancy with risk factors should not be a candidate for home delivery. - DGentry

@DGentry That is what they say in the article. It has to be low risk. Even though I would love to have a home birth, I couldn't because I have several risk factors. Therefore, I had a OB/GYN that also had Midwives. - Shevonne

Sorry, I meant to say that it was a low risk pregnancy. @DGentry agreed re high risk but as Shevonne said, I think that's pretty much the standard. We would have done it differently if it was a high risk pregnancy. Also, our midwife has over 20 years of experience and is a physician's assistant as well. We made sure that she had no issues with transporting (to a hospital) if there were... more... - metalerik

I didn't see this link in that article, but I apologize if I missed it. Here are the most recent statistics regarding the safety of home birth vs. hospital birth (for low risk pregnancies, of course - high risk is completely different): http://betterbirth.blogspot.com/2009... - Rochelle

We had our first in the hospital and had a horrible experience. The other 4 have been at home and I have loved it - as a father I got to participate much more and helped do most of the delivery while the midwifes just watched. I loved it - I had a great chance to bond with my wife and my kids in the process. I agree with Rochelle that with high risk pregnancies it gets a little more complicated making the decision to have a home birth. - Robert Freeze

I'm glad it works out for most, but after the birth of Milan I couldn't even imagine having a birth at home and I got to help out as much as I wanted with the birth at Stanford Hospital. - Robert Scoble

birth is worse for men then for women. I totally never wanna go through it again. push, push, push... and then a turd comes out. they don't tell you that happens in the movies - NoahDavidSimon

@Noah eewwwwww - Shevonne

oh yeah it looked like a soft serve chocolate ice cream. - NoahDavidSimon

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