In defense of home birth

Women who choose to have their babies at home are often ostracized. This needs to stop.

A house.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Supirloko89/iStock, dusanpetkovic/iStock)

Almost a decade ago, I called my mother to tell her about the birth of my daughter — her first grandchild. Her first question was: "Where are you?"

I'd recently confessed that I was planning to have my baby at home. Mom's eyebrows raised, but after reminding her that we could see the hospital from our apartment, she didn't try to dissuade me. "Just don't tell your father," she half-joked.

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Rebecca Schiller

Rebecca Schiller is a U.K.-based journalist, a founder of the human rights in childbirth charity Birthrights, and the author of several books including Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan: A Revolutionary Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and the Weeks That Follow. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Stylist, The Pool, Vice, The Telegraph, and Marie Claire, among other publications. She lives on a smallholding with her husband and two children.