There are more than you think--doctors, nurses, and midwives who attend hospital birth and had their own children at home.
You've met some of them in the trailer, but I've heard from so many more since launching our Kickstarter campaign.
A group of hospital birth providers who had their own children at home. I met them at the Home Birth Consensus Summit.
Some of them were part of the natural birth movement in the 70's. Their children are grown now. Many of them are younger though, new in practice with young families.
I wish I could say things have gotten easier, the judgements and criticisms less harsh, but I'm not sure they have. There are certainly regional differences. In San Francisco, CA for example, the women I talked to were more open with their decision than those in many other parts of the country.
After all, in 22 states Certified Professional Midwives (those trained in home birth who attend most home births in the US) are illegal and unregulated.
I've had supporters ask that their stories and contributions remain anonymous because they like their jobs and want to keep them. Stories of doctors who covered up their planned home birth by saying they just didn't make it to the hospital.
One family who chose to be open about their decision reported being ridiculed by colleagues who joked, "We'll see you in the OR."
Does it really have to be that way? Clearly it isn't always, but it's a story I've heard often enough it's worth talking about.
Help me bring these stories into the open, to have an honest discussion about risk, safety, and the experience of childbirth in America.
Let's talk about how we can celebrate and honor women and families in this process regardless of where they choose to have their children. There's been enough judgement, derision, and ridicule. Let's move on so we don't find ourselves in the same place in another 40 years.