best places to find info about homebirth

[mamasarah]

dh and i are in the process of talking about when we'll ttc, so i am ready to research...let me give you a little background...

dd was born in 02 via c-sec after a long, hard, natural labor in hospital ( i had a midwife, but she was unsupportive and made some major mistakes) and though i won't get into my greif over this i'll say that my 1st instinct for #2 would be to try for a VBAC homebirth. dh is concerned b/c the last birth was pretty scary and he saw how emotionally scarred i was.

so my question is, where have you found the most useful info regarding homebirth? books? websites?
i know i will learn a lot from the mamas here at MDC, but i need to learn all that i can so that dh and i can feel comfortable with our decision.

[georgia]

have you ever contacted ICAN? there are some really great books out there, too (thinking woman's guide to a better birth, silent knife is old but good!, birth as an american rite of passage, homebirth, there are tons!) gentlebirth.org has also been helpful. MDC most of all just reading the hb forum is wonderful.

here's some of my process for my first hb---talking to other mamas in my area, interviewing mws, working through and experiencing the grief and pain of my first experience, figuring out what birth *really* meant to me. i realized that reading was so helpful, but emotionally and spiritually is where it mattered most as far as birthing my baby...a deep belief that i could do it!

IMO, there is no such thing as "natural" birth in a hospital---we are set up to fail by virtue of location and care providers. being in an institution, the odds are stacked against us.....we deserve to birth where we personally feel most loved, safest, comfortable and supported. birth works when left alone!

sorry to ramble---teething nursing toddler and about 2 hrs of sleep! all the best on your journey!

[pamamidwife]

ICAN rocks. There is also an email list and many of the women on it are planning homebirths after cesareans (HBACs).

I have some information on homebirth on my website.

Here's a really good article on VBAC from Henci Goer, who is amazing (her book, The Thinking Womans Guide to a Better Birth should be required reading by all pregnant mamas!).

This is an all-around great site for VBACs.

I agree with Georgia, too - talk to other women! Talk to midwives. Get a feel for what's out there in your community. Good luck!

[tinyshoes]

I like Peggy Vincent's book, The Baby Catcher. Author Peggy Vincent was a labor & delivery nurse who evolved into a direct-entry midwife, attending women's births at home in California. The book is set in the present-day, and what I love about this book is the variety of homebirths described, and after a few chapters, the reader begins to have a profound mental shift: normal birth can and does take place outside of the hosptial.

When I first started learning about homebirth, I knew some mamas (doulas) IRL who had done it, I read good reasons why to do it, I felt like I wanted to do it, and The Baby Catcher gave this homebirth lifestyle a context--both for the homebirth-attending midwife, and her homebirthing clients (not patients, clients.) This book normalizes homebirth.

[cottonwood]

There are some good resources you can get through www.midwiferytoday.com.

If you can handle the subscription price, www.birthlove.com has a ton of good information.

Henci Goer's The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth is just the thing to show your husband that the medical literature actually supports what Georgia said, that "we are set up to fail by virtue of location and care providers. being in an institution, the odds are stacked against us....."

Anyway, those are good places to start!

[mamasarah]

just wanted to say thanks for the replies and info. i will likely be reading a lot of books and websites in the coming months!