walks of life including some of the most respected professions.
• Homebirth babies may have problems you don’t know about: So might hospital babies, but the homebirth midwife is as well trained as her hospital counterpart to assess every newborn for any signs out of the ordinary, just as is done in a hospital.
• There’s a big mess to clean up afterwards and who wants that with a new baby to attend to: Not true. A homebirth midwife will supply the usual disposable sheets and equipment just like you would find in a hospital. She will make every effort to leave as little to tidy up as possible behind her. You will have a ready group of supporters who will be quite happy to do all that for you while you are resting with your new baby in the first few days.

Suitability
   Consideration of a homebirth is often (but not always) made by women who have had one or more previous trouble free births. Their confidence is high and their track record is good, although a first birth at home need not be considered any more risky simply because of inexperience. Many homebirth midwives are comfortable and experienced with managing twins and breech births. Pre-existing medical problems, depending on their nature, may or may not exclude such women from a homebirth, and these issues are usually discussed with the homebirth midwife you are considering engaging. Whilst some midwives have a list of conditions that they do not like to be involved with such as breech, twins, hypertension, mature age mothers, there are other midwives who will happily take on women with the so-called “high risk” conditions. This willingness on behalf of some independent homebirth midwives to assist with the high risk births, gives women who fall into this category an option for non-interventionist birthing outside of hospital labour wards and hospital Birth Centres.

Naturalness
   The word naturalness frequently arises when discussing a better quality of life. Whether it be environment, possessions, sex, food, feelings, activities, relationships, people, ideas, thoughts – to me, quality and natural go together. To say that a homebirth is a natural way to birth is to mean it is a quality birth. Perhaps this is why so much of the quality of birthing has been lost because the majority in our society live so unnaturally. In the complexity, the rush, the scattered focus of so many busy lives, birth has lost its simplicity, its
   

harmony with nature inside and outside ourselves.   
   After a little bit of nervousness with my first homebirth, having the last 2 babies at home felt so right and comfortable. I was completely relaxed in my head about it and did not have to feel restricted by anyone else’s routines or requirements. The day my last baby was born, it was a beautiful spring morning. My children played happily around inside and outside of the house and they were able to witness the naturalness, the everyday-ness of birth. It was for me a most beautiful experience in every way. They are memories to treasure and share with those children (all girls) when they approach parenthood.

Birthing for the Yogini
   A woman who has been practicing yoga for some time, will gradually become more at ease with her body and will want to look after it more. When becoming pregnant, she will want to carry that over into her child and her birth. She will discover that more and more she wants to be in nice, positive places, surrounded only by like-minded people and have experiences which match her yoga sentiments. Whilst giving birth, the yogini would not enjoy the psychic presence of non-participants such as hospital staff or irrelevant onlookers. Such mental interference will interrupt the depth of her meditation in birth. In line with this, she may think seriously about birthing at home, in which case she should assess the situation in conjunction with a yoga teacher and a suitably intuitive midwife. Whether she decides to go to a hospital or stay at home for that birth she will want to be free to use all the tools of yoga at her disposal. That includes not only postures and breathing, but maybe some mantra, music, incense, soft light. Some Birth Centres may allow such things, but beware – once, when assisting in a Birth Centre, we lit some incense and the fire alarms went off! The staff were not too pleased.

Faith and the Unexpected
   Giving birth requires the element of faith at many levels, and homebirth requires a greater amount of faith than in other venues, because you cannot transfer all of that faith onto others. To give birth at home, you must take the responsibility rather than give it away, and you must have faith in yourself, more so than in anyone else.
   Faith is nowadays often thought of as a weak force, something the opposite to intelligence, something blind. And it is true that faith, like trust, can be blind and