Nothing is more important to your child's development as a whole person than the prenatal. birth and postpartum care you both receive. Midwife Chris Duffy facilitates the environment that you want for your baby's birth.

For me, it's not just about the "experience" and how pleasant it is at home. It's about how SAFE it is- and unfortunately, statistics show that the hospitals in the US are not as SAFE as their alternatives, for a low-risk pregnancy. I had a fine experience in the hospital with Daniel- nice nurses, very concerned and educated doctor who respected my wishes well enough (until her panic set in). I got the epidural-free childbirth I wanted and had a healthy baby in spite of my doctor.

Unfortunately, I had to educate the doctor on what a normally progressing, natural child birth looked like- I'm not sure she had ever seen one before (they literally are not trained on "normal" labor- they are surgeons and trained accordingly about all the complications and all the ways they can be sued if they don't over-react), and though nothing was going wrong in my labor, she couldn't just sit back and let things happen. And when I was fully dilated, she assumed that just like her normal patients who can't feel anything below their spines, she had to instruct me on pushing, and I foolishly listened instead of listening to my body's signals. I "purple pushed" for 2 hours, never once feeling the urge to push. And since that was taking too long by her book, she wanted to cut me- I barely had time to tell her no. So instead she gave me a local anesthetic. Sure enough, next push, baby was out- but in my grand, numb, rush I got a 3rd degree tear that I am STILL not completely healed from 4 years later (turns out my body was taking it slow because I needed time to stretch out). In retrospect, I am full of "ifs". What if I had let the stupid doctor induce me when she first wanted to at 35 weeks.... would Daniel have been ok? What if I hadn't let her break my water when she did- would I have had painful back labor (probably not)? What if I had let my body tell me when to push? What if I hadn't let her rush me at the end? What if I had just told her to leave the room and done it on my own?

Statistically, the odds of a rare complication that a midwife can't handle/get you to the hospital in time is VERY low.... compared to the statistical likelihood that some hospital policy or a doctor's need to intervene/"manage labor" will cause complications for you and baby. If our hospitals had healthier approach to labor, our c-section rate wouldn't be ridiculously high and our maternal and fetal mortality rates wouldn't be so high. It is more statistically dangerous for a mother to have her baby at a US hospital than a hospital in 43 other civilized nations, putting us on the same level as Belarus. (http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/U-S-ranks-41st-in-maternal-mortality-1252472.php) The problem isn't a lack of health care or a lack of technology- it is that our hospitals and OBs are trained to intervene and ignore the risks that come with those interventions. Worse yet, they don't inform the moms of those risks. How many moms do you know that have had pitocin administered during labor? And how many of them were told that it would make them 5 times more likely to have a c-section? How many of them were told that a link between pitocin and autism is currently being researched? Probably not many. 

Instead of a scary, "you're going to die of infection, this is taking too long, let's induce you" birth for Camille, I had a perfect, comfortable, safe 3 hour natural birth. And yes, after the easy delivery we did go to the hospital, because my well-trained and cautious midwife, Chris Duffy, recognized a potential problem with Camille's heart (not in any way connected to the labor) and we wanted to be extra careful. I'd have been quite surprised if a doctor would have caught the same issue. It all worked out fine- after a few hours the issue resolved itself anyways, but I like to think the hospital bill we paid was worth the proof that home-birth does not mean "unnecessary risk-taker". And even if she did end up visiting the hospital so early, I'm still SO glad I labored and delivered at home, where the risk for infection is lower, where my labor was recognized as a normal, natural event and not an emergency that must be managed. A stressed/scared mom is more likely to have a longer and/or more complicated labor... but no wonder our moms are all so stressed, with the way our society approaches birth as a terrifying emergency.