Birth Stories
Bev
To begin with I wasn't sure about home birth at all. What if something went wrong? It didn't seem as safe as giving birth in a maternity unit and I was worried about the mess it would make in our home. My wife was really adamant that she wanted to have the baby at home but our midwife said it wouldn't work unless we were both comfortable with it and on the same page.
Liv
I chose to have Teegan at home after having had a really positive birth experience with my
daughter Riley. Riley was born at Paraparaumu Maternity Unit - she came quickly, in the water, with no pain relief. Her birth left me feeling empowered and looking forward to having future babies. I felt that the only way to make the experience even more empowering and special would be to have my next baby at home in our space. We are lucky enough to have an amazing midwife who is an absolute advocate for home birth. She wholeheartedly supported my choice to have baby at home and was amazing when it came to reassuring my husband of
the safety and benefits of home birth.
Gemma
We decided on a home birth while living on the Kapiti coast for a few reasons. Our first child born at Wellington hospital and was a ‘normal’ birth. This gave us the confidence that the second birth would be similar, along with advice from our midwife along the pregnancy journey. Secondly, we wanted our daughter to be with us when our baby arrived and finally we just wanted to be in the comfort of our own home, instead of the sterile environment of the hospital or maternity unit.
Jorja
It all started on the 22nd March 2021 at our antenatal visit with our lovely midwife. I was given the magazine 'Tummy talk' for some light reading and it was that afternoon I got home and decided to flick through it. I read a couple of pages and thought to myself 'why has a home birth not crossed my mind' so I kept reading. I said to my partner "I want a home birth, what do you think" he was really supportive of the idea so when I next spoke to our midwife and mentioned we wanted a homebirth I could hear in her voice she was ecstatic - this made me feel super confident about our decision.
Stacey
My decision to have a home birth with my second baby came after I had my first back in the UK in 2017.
Even though my daughter was born healthy and happy with zero signs of distress throughout, the labour
itself was nearly 70 hours long, ended in an epidural and was heavy with unnecessary interventions.