"You know... not everything we do needs to be extraordinary..." Jonathan said this to me as he was loading me into the back of the ambulance outside of our house while I held our newly born daughter in my arms.
We never intended on having a home birth. Our plan was always to head into the hospital as soon as my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, for 1 hour (basically the 5-1-1 rule). There are people who do plan on birthing at home and they have a midwife on call and a general plan for emergency back ups in case something goes wrong. Some women seek out home births because they feel more comfortable in their familiar surroundings or because they want more control over the environment. There are the rare occasions we all hear about where a woman doesn't make it to the hospital in time and has to give birth in the back of the car on the highway or in the back of an ambulance. For most people, this is a "worst case scenario" and it freaks people out. Rightly so. Not being in control of your situation can be a scary thing and most people have zero experience delivering babies. Shockingly, WE ended up being one of those families who didn't make it to the hospital, or even out our front door, because we underestimated well...everything.
