Chantelle Scott is a Holistic Birth Mentor at Grow & Glow Birth who works with women in pregnancy and preconception to explore their birth vision and share wisdom on unhindered birth. Her offerings are for women that are open to a new way of welcoming birth, who are willing to shed the layers of expectation and social conditioning and ready to birth the way that feels most authentically aligned to them.
What comes to mind when you think of a woman birthing at home?
Oh, she must be so fearless, so brave. I could never do that.
But what if I told you that countless women have told themselves the same thing yet arrived at the decision to have a homebirth after just a short few months into their pregnancy?
What changed for them? Find out below.
You see, your beliefs about birth in general aren’t new. You’ve been collecting these subconsciously your whole life. From the birth of you by your mother. From the first story you heard about birth and subsequent stories since, snippets from movies and more.
Each one, an external voice. Someone else’s experience. Someone else’s beliefs.
A planned hospital birth is too risky for me.
Why is a planned hospital birth too risky for me? Risk is subjective.
From hospital to hospital.
From obstetrician to obstetrician.
From midwife to midwife.
From private midwife to private midwife.
From doula to doula.
From birth keeper to birth keeper.
From woman to woman.
From mother to mother.
There’s no one definition. It’s about who you decide to listen to – yourself, or someone else?
For me, the risk of leaving home and having my birth medically meddled with in a hospital is not a risk I’d ever be willing to take. Because once you leave home, you’re now pulled out of the state of flow to letting birth unfold unhindered and instead you’re being watched, observed and questioned. Conditioned from pregnancy to be offered inductions, including stretch and sweeps and synthetic hormones to force the body into labour. Routine vaginal examinations and monitoring. Coached pushing. And when the meddling doesn’t work? More interference with hand tools inside your body – forceps or vacuum. Normalising what is not normal for our birthing bodies. Sabotaging birth. Stripping away that rite of passage that can be truly transformational for women in the very best way.
These are the risks I will not accept. Women deserve a better ‘normal’.
No, leave me at home to allow my body to birth the way it should. Leave me to journey deeper into my subconscious, connecting inwards to my baby, responding intuitively to my thoughts and movements, not to those around me. Leave me to wander around my home, retreating to a quiet, safe space that feels right in the moment. Listening to soothing music. Each sensation in my body having a purpose. Connecting with my partner and other loved ones around me. Birthing my baby gently into my arms. Nestling in my bed or lounge afterwards under dim lighting as my baby moves instinctually to feed for the first time.
What feelings arise for you reading these scenarios?
If you’re under the perception that homebirth is risky, ask yourself, where did this information come from? Is it from those that haven’t had a homebirth? Is it from those who haven’t sat and listened to a homebirth mother? Is it from someone who hasn’t researched the safety of homebirth in statistics?
I have experienced both worlds – a private hospital birth and a homebirth. And I have the deepest desire to share the beauty of homebirth with women. I wish I would have spent my pregnancy truly understanding physiological birth, the hormones of birth, the safety of homebirth, the holistic layers of birth, shedding the ‘good girl’ personality and visualising a birth completely in my power, not looking to anyone else. I wish that I didn’t have to waste time learning to advocate for myself and surrendering my beliefs over to those in authority, and instead surrendering to myself. Which is exactly is why I’ve created my 1:1 mentoring offering for women planning a homebirth or even just passionate about a birth that feels most aligned to their values.
What if, you were meant to homebirth?
What if birthing at home is not bigger than you. It is you.
You, the creator of life, the author of your story.
