Because I have given birth so often (six times), I am often asked about my birth “stories.” It surprises me that I haven’t written about them, but truthfully, my births have been fairly unremarkable. Of course, being pregnant with my seventh, I don’t want to jinx it, but I have only had one birth that was traumatic in any way.

And yes, I have given birth to all six of my children naturally - without any intervention of any kind. Was it painful? Oh my yes! I’ve read about women who have “orgasmic” childbirths…I am definitely not one of those women.

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Is this really a frugal tip? You better believe it.

And I’ll be upfront - I’ve only had one homebirth. Mostly because I have a very nice birthing center close by and I really like it there (after all, I’ve been there often enough).

But I loved my homebirth too - and would certainly do it again. In fact, I would encourage all mothers and mothers to be to look into homebirthing - especially the movie The Business of Being Born.

Here are 5 reasons to consider having a homebirth:

1. It’s cheaper. No, really. An average hospital birth costs between $3,500 and $15,000. An average homebirth? $1,500.

2. You’re in control (well, until the pushing starts). You can control what goes on in your home. No matter what they tell you during the hospital tour, you feel like a guest there - a patient, no less - and if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to be accommodating. I have a natural tendency to be the “good” patient. The one that doesn’t yell, doesn’t demand too much. But this is not to your benefit. Stay home and you’ll feel comfortable enough to demand what you want! And you’ll get it too (sorry partners…)

3. Reduced chance of infection. Because hospitals are known for spreading staph and other infections, you and your baby will be bundled up safely with the germs you already know!

4. You will avoid unnecessary medical interventions. According to Mothering Magazine (a magazine I highly recommend for all moms and dads!): “A carefully conducted study compared the cesarean section rates between patients who used midwifery services for their homebirths from The Farm, a well-respected birth center in Tennessee, to physician-attended hospital births. The hospital c-section rates were 16.46 percent of all the births. The Farm had a c-section rate of only 1.46 percent! Many other studies have confirmed the markedly lower c-section rates in homebirths.”

5. You’ll recover quicker. Because you won’t have had any drugs or other interventions (it took me two weeks to recover from the immediate pain of an episiotomy - and I still haven’t recovered mentally from it - the experience will remain burned in my mind forever), you’ll feel better sooner. In all of my subsequent births (all natural), I always feel energetic and in good spirits after the birth. And I’m usually out of the house and going places within a day or two.

Mama Nomad has posted the story of the birth of her new little one…

Check it out here.

Sara Wickham wrote this for Midwifery Today and I thought I would share it with you.

“This action list of small things all midwives can do to change societal attitudes toward birth and to promote midwifery and the midwifery model was derived from some research I carried out a few years ago. All the suggestions are either free or very low cost, and none will take too much time or effort. Some things on the list won’t be new ideas to you, but they might act as a gentle reminder that simple, everyday things might have a positive impact on the way our society sees birth and midwifery.

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Well, my apologies for not posting lately, but I have been a bit preoccupied…

Our sixth baby - and second girl - arrived on Oct. 3! Kiara was born at our local birthing center after about five hours of labor. She is 9 lbs 2 oz and not my biggest baby - but in the top 3! We had another natural birth - although no tub this time, which I kind of missed. But I was a little too erratic this time to stay in one place.

She was born at 7 am and we came home that night. We are happily ensconced in loafing on the couch, catching up on email and light publishing duties, and watching DVDs from Netflix!

Thanks to all the subscribers and posters who have wished us well. I will post the “official” birth story a little later.

And yes, the cloth diapering, breastfeeding and co-sleeping have begun…and I love every snuggly second of it!

Best,

Misha