Without wanting to discount the experiences of the previous writers who were lucky to have their babies in hospital, in the vicinity of specialist teams despite earlier considerations of a home birth, I'd like to add a different view. I'm Dutch and now living in London. My first baby was born in hospital, my second at home - both while we were still living in the Netherlands. Being pregnant with my third here, my GP told me I had to leave her practice if I really considered another home birth ('We don't do home births here'). It's funny how perspectives can differ even with little physical distance between countries: in the Netherlands, about a third of the babies are born at home and as far as I'm aware, there's no more risk attached to a home birth than to a hospital birth. It might be on the contrary, even, given that all pregnancies with medical complications or other known risks are referred to hospital upfront anyway - and if things turn difficult during the actual delivery, you would also go to one of the nearby hospitals. (Sorry guys, no research at hand to back this all up... but then again, someone would tell me that data from another country aren't valid here anyway ;-) ) Luckily, the midwife practice in our local hospital is very supportive of home births and - with three weeks to go before my due date - we're still hoping to welcome this baby to our family at home. What tips the scale for me in opting for a home birth? Mainly, it spares me the disruption of having to move to hospital during labour - which may slow down the contractions, lengthening the birthing process, increasing the likelihood of getting exhausted and thus the need for pain medication and other medical procedures which may have been avoided... also, without getting all woozy over it, I strongly prefer the privacy and familiarity of my own home, both during labour and in the aftermath, over the bureacracy and procedures necessary even in the friendliest hospital. Needless to say that my husband and I have very fond memories of the home birth of our son, during which we felt so much more in control than during the hospital birth of our daughter. I do find that, given the commonality of home births in the Netherlands, midwifes over there are better prepared to deal with them in terms of information available, equipment that they have (although they don't have TENS-machines or gas and air, both of them were new to me) and moral support to both the mother and the partner. Still, I fully trust the midwife team that I've met here to do a great job. In the end, the basics of giving birth remain very much the same independent of the actual location of the event. The thing I guess I am going to miss is the lovely Dutch system where a specially trained nurse comes to your house for three to eight hours a day up to eight days after delivery (mostly based upon your need but obviously also influenced by the availability of these special nurses and your insurance level), - she takes care of both mother and baby, gives a lot of hands-on training in babycare and breastfeeding, makes sure that any visitors are both well looked after and shooed out of the door soon enough, and keeps the household running at a basic level including doing the laundry, some grocery shopping, cooking if needed, helping out with any older children... but somehow we'll manage without this luxury too. Don't get me wrong: if the need arises, I'll be glad to have our baby in hospital and I'll be thankful for all medical procedures that might be necessary. But I sure am hoping this baby will arrive as quickly and safely as our second one, the delivery made so much easier because I feel confident and strong in my own home.