misplaced. You operate on faith each time you cross that big bridge don’t you? Why? Because you “trust” the engineers who designed it, built and maintain it. You don’t understand those skills yourself but you “believe” they do. In sum, you place your faith in that bridge. Just like the bridge, do you have faith in your own body’s designer (that is nature), its builder and maintainer (which is you and your lifestyle)? At another level of faith, do you trust your baby to do what he is programmed to do in the womb? Why would he do anything else, unless obstructed? It is his purpose to come out, that’s all he wants to do. Do you trust your support people, to do everything they possibly can for you, to see things as they are and react accordingly? If they love you, I’m sure they will.
   There will always be an unknown factor in each and every birth, whether it be in a hospital, at home, or in an emergency situation. In the event of something unexpected, you and your team must deal with it in the best way possible. In such events it is your faith in yourself, your baby, your support people and that things will be fine in the end, which will get you through.

Why Do People Homebirth?
   Birthing at home is not chosen by very many women at all (in this country), and not just because of potential medical complications and the so-called risk issue. To go to such efforts and to take on such responsibility in opposition to the mainstream approach, takes great commit-ment. Weighing up the desires for a homebirth with the practical necessities it requires, is a tricky process and it is not a decision which is usually taken lightly. Such a birth should be an extension of a healthy, natural and simple lifestyle, rather than an unrealistic wish or an impractical fantasy.
   Over the years I have talked to home-birthers, I have discerned the following reasons a woman (or couple) might lean towards homebirthing.
• A realisation that the medical and hospital model of birthing often (inadvertently) creates many of the complications and interventions in birth
• A philosophical preference for a private, domestic venue over a public, social one
• Naturalistic tendencies where medicine and hospitals are seen as unwarranted or unnecessary
• Concern for the child regarding exposure to tests, interventions, procedures or the ambience of hospitals
 

• A political, feminist or anarchist standpoint against “the system”, the patriarchy or conservatism in general
• A preference for intimacy and privacy of the birth
• An issue of self empowerment where a woman uses the event to awaken her instinctive Mother Goddess aspects of personality
• A need to focus on the spiritual / religious elements of birth ignored (or prohibited) in public birth venues
• So as not to be separated from her other children and normal family life
• So as not to disturb the established patterns of her unborn.

Taking and Sharing Responsibility
   Underlying all of the above reasons to choose homebirth, is the issue of responsibility. In a hospital, the moment you walk in the door, your responsibility for all that follows ends. Full stop. That is a legal and ethical fact. What you do inside their building is totally, 100% their responsibility. You give your name, you sign the forms, you are their “patient”. If medical staff see you doing something they consider unwise or dangerous they have every legal right to stop you doing it. If they see any potentially dangerous situation developing around “your treatment” (pregnancy is something they like to “treat”, you see), they must act to prevent that possibility. In entering that venue, you are handing responsibil-ity for your condition to that institution and its managers. At the same time, you receive in exchange for that transfer of responsibility, fewer rights and choices. And this is a deal which most people like and want and will keep on doing as long as they have babies – and that is their right.
   A homebirther does not hand over all that responsibility to the institution. They share that responsibility, in differing amounts, with their birthing support people such as the midwife, partner and helpers. But, and this is the big but, as the one deciding to go for a homebirth, it is the pregnant woman who holds the ultimate responsibility over and above all the others for the whole project. It is she who, like the Hospital General Manager, must oversee and delegate areas of responsibility to the players. If something, anything, goes wrong, the buck stops with her! And this issue of where does the responsibility lie, has been the source of much conflict in many births – both in hospital and at home.