You and your partner have decided to have a home birth. Hurray! We LOVE home birth and home birthing mamas.
However, in our experience, deciding to have a home birth can sometimes bring up uncomfortable conversations with family and friends who are, ahem, less than supportive.
If you are planning a home birth and are planning to tell family and friends about your plan soon, we’ve got some tips. Read on:
Present it as a fact
If you’ve already made the decision to have a home birth, you probably aren’t interested in having a debate with friends and family as to why you made this choice. So, when you tell them, preface it the conversation as being a done deal. You aren’t looking for input or opinions; you are only informing them.
Offer research
Sometimes, well-meaning friends and family are fearful of home birth because they have never researched it or known anyone who has had one. So, be armed with research and studies that back up the safety of home birth to shut that down.
Know your reasons
When you have this conversation, it helps to have a strong conviction and concrete reasons for having a home birth. Practice saying them. Write them down. Be firm and calm.
Have empathy
Chances are, you are the first person your friends and family know who have had a home birth (did you know that less than 1% of babies are born at home?). So, try to have empathy when talking to them, because you are going against societal norms and change is hard for some people.
Be prepared to walk away
Some people may never come around to your decision to have a home birth and that’s OK. It isn’t your job to convince them or win them over. If your friends and family are super critical or even hostile, it’s OK to end the conversation and walk away. Setting boundaries now about what you will and will not tolerate in regards to birth and parenting is healthy and necessary.
Everything Birth
We’re here to help you have a healthy and lovely home birth!