Happy Birth Days: Personal Accounts of Birth at Home, the Intimate Husband-Wife Way

Collection of fifty stories about unassisted homebirth (birth without a doctor or midwife). Couples explain why they chose to birth this way, how they prepared for birth, and shared their joyous birth experiences. Stories include previous C-sections, including one woman who had a C-section in 1946 and had subsequent do-it-yourself births. Parents describe the liberating feelings during labor and birth: no hospital staff telling them what position to give birth in or what to eat or drink. Families share their previous birth failures, frustrations and fears. Some women who were studying to become midwives chose a do-it-yourself birth. They discussed their dilemma and feelings of hypocrisy - on the one hand, they wanted to help other couples by participating in their births, but by being a midwife, they knew they were intruding on a couples' private space. They wondered how they could (or if they should) encourage couples to bypass the desire for a midwife. Couples describe the medical and social opposition they often receive, how they increased their confidence to the final point of triumph - a level that medical birthers seldom describe. Twenty-three photos from North American couples show the reader the diversity of people who choose unassisted birth.