Who Is Behind Home Birth Guide ?
~ Our Story

Hi, I'm Dian. The person behind home-birth-guide.com

Home Birth Guide has been my labor of love. I build this website to give accurate and honest information about childbirth.

My mission is to encourage and empower women to be proactive when it comes to giving birth. I feel that joyful birth is a woman's right and I hope that one day, all (if not, majority) women will get a joyful, intimate and satisfying childbirth experience, as opposed to the current impersonal, heavily-managed and medicalized childbirths which prevail today.

You may be curious what my credential is to give information on childbirth. I am not a doctor, nor a midwife. I am not even a doula or a childbirth educator. I am a mom of two home-birthed children who has a passion on homebirth and natural birth. Through this website, I would like to share what I've learned about childbirth.

My Story

Here is my story why I decided to have homebirths.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I wasn't even thinking about having a homebirth. But I did want to have a natural birth.

Since I was in the UK at that time, I was under care of a physician and midwife. I was particularly impressed with my community midwife at that time. We spent around 30 mins each appointment to chat and talk. I felt comfortable with her.

Since I wanted to have a natural birth so much, I started browsing in the internet and ended up reading a bunch of natural childbirth books. Those books, along with articles on the internet, really opened my eyes. I realized that I had to be proactive in order to get the birth that I wanted.I also realized that brochures available in physician's office as well as popular childbirth books did not give the whole story about childbirth, especially on how to have a baby naturally. That's why I found many pregnant women WERE not informed enough in the field of childbirth.

When I was six months pregnant, I moved to the US with my husband. I heard that in the US, almost all the pregnant women was under care of an obstetrician which was weird to me because in the UK, pregnant women would never get to see their obstetrician, unless they were high-risk. All of the pregnant women over there are under care of a community midwife .

At that point, I still did not think of homebirth. I guess I was not yet comfortable with the idea of giving birth at home. However, having read a lot about natural birth, I wasn't comfortable to go to an obstetrician and gave birth in a hospital either. In fact, at that point, I was too scared to even go to hospital to give birth.

So it looked like that I had no choice apart from having a homebirth. After further reading, I decided to call a recommended midwife and go for a homebirth.

You remember I mention earlier that I was impressed with my community midwife in the UK ? I was more impressed with the midwife whom I hired. We talked like old friends, and I felt comfortable with her and trusted her for the birth of my first baby. At the same time, I attended a natural childbirth course with my husband and we strived towards having a homebirth.

My first homebirth went really well and I felt that having a homebirth was the best decision I ever made. I stayed at home throughout the labor (on my sofa), gave birth under water, and had my baby besides me all the time. There was no hassle at all. No procedures to follow, no procedures to refuse, no paper to sign, no move to other room. No nothing. My husband prepared a little feast for us afterwards. I really enjoyed that birth.

Now, everytime I looked back into that birth, I felt a joyful, satisfying and empowering feeling inside me. I felt I made it. The empowerment which came from the homebirth also greatly affects the way I behave as a parent. I and my husband are confident to make a variety of parenting decision which may or may not conform the norm.

My second homebirth was equally joyful. My son who was two at that time, slept at the room, while I labored and gave birth to my baby girl. After the birth, she stayed with me and it was such a coincidence that my son woke up at that time. So we cuddled together as a family and we had a little feast (again) afterwards.

Now, after two homebirths, I cannot imagine giving birth in other place. Not, unless I am a high-risk mother. Really, there is no place like home.

A lot of people don't understand why I made this decision. At the same time, I find that many pregnant moms do not care how their childbirths will turn out and do not make themselves informed enough on this subject. A lot of them just hope for the best and are happy enough with whatever birth they get as long as they and their babies are alive.

Through this website, I want to encourage women not to settle with and accept the current model of childbirth. Birth should be better than what currently prevails. It should be joyful.

I am hoping to be able to encourage women to take charge of their birth experience. I want those who want more information on how to have a natural birth/home birth can get the information from Home Birth Guide. And finally, I want to form a virtual community where women support each other in their journey of achieving the birth that they want.

Enjoy my website.

Big Hugs

DIAN

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