A homebirth is something I would never consider. I don't mean to dissuade anyone, as 2 of my friends had home births resulting in healthy babies and they enjoyed their experiences, so I do think that it can be right for some people. But I personally wouldn't take the risk, even with my husband here and he attends several births each week. In fact, there's NO way he would even entertain the thought from his physician standpoint, regardless of my opinion. And we lived less than 2 blocks from the hospital he worked at for all 3 kids. It's the unknown, the complications that could arise on the spot that you have no advance warning.
But here are my reasons. I had a very easy 2nd child, I labored quickly and he slid right out with minimal problems (his cord was around his neck, which was periodically dropping his heartrate, but he want otherwise okay). He was preterm so there was that issue, but had he been born on time it would have been the perfect delivery. No pain meds, no intervention (other than steroids for his lungs and terbutaline to attempt to stop labor since he was preterm).
My 1st, however, passed meconium in utero, so without the ability to do an amnio-infusion (they pumped saline into my uterus to clear out the meconium), she would have almost definitely aspirated meconium, and therefore had a good chance at brain damage, lung issues, or death. We were very, very lucky in that the amnio-infusion was a complete success and her lungs were meconium free at birth and she was fine.
My best friend's 2nd was born the night before my 2nd and she was hospitalized in the NICU for meconium aspiration. She was born in a hospital, but didn't pass the meconium till moments before she was born. So just enough time to inhale it, but not enough time for the drs to know until she came out covered in green/black mess and not breathing. Luckily she was fine as they were able to work on her immediately, get her on O2 within seconds, started IVs, etc. She's now 4yo and totally normal, but for nearly her entire 1st year, my friend and her husband were terrified she'd show signs of brain damage. If she hadn't been in the hospital at birth, she wouldn't have gotten the same suctioning, O2, antibiotics, etc. immediately like she did and she likely would have had brain damage.
So that alone would be enough to make me only birth in a hospital, but Scarlett's birth sealed the deal.
Everyone thought she'd be super-easy, riding on the heels of her brother's easy birth. And things were fine in early labor, everything was going smoothly. Then she decided to hold her umbilical cord over her head, at the same time my water was just contractions away from breaking. So if my water broke and she remained in that position, and I had not been in the hospital, she would have died or, at a minimum, had serious brain damage. They gave us a choice to wait it out, see if she moved her arm/cord, or just go to the CS and we chose the CS. My husband was a huge factor in that decision, as he has seen many prolapsed cords turn to emergency CSs, where they literally roll the mom into the ER with a dr's hand in her uterus, holding the baby's head off the umbilical cord, put the mom under with general anesthesia and have the baby out inside of 3 minutes. Neither of us wanted to knowingly take that chance with Scarlett's life so CS it was.
What really scared me here though, was that my water broke at home with my son. I just kept thinking about what would have happened to him if he had been in the same position as Scarlett. Or if my water had broken at home with her in that position. And a CS was never, ever on my radar after having 2 regular deliveries.
If I didn't want much intervention, however, I would definitely make those thoughts known at the hospital. Like with Scarlett, I did NOT want an epidural at all. I didn't have one with Henry and I felt much better right after his birth than I did with Madison (though there was also a big difference labor too), so I was very anti-epi. My husband thought I was nuts, particularly given his field
, but he told everyone what I wanted. Of course, I needed one for the CS, but until that point I was epi-free. Also I didn't want pitocin (which I know sounds nuts, as I was induced with her), and I remained pitocin free. Now, had the Cervidil not been effective in starting up regular contractions, my choices would have been either get pitocin or go home and come back when I was really in labor, but I was fine with that.
You do need to know that you can make your desires known and that, unless it's a safety issue, the drs will follow your wishes. Designate someone to be your advocate so that when you're in the moment you don't have to worry about fighting off anesthesia or pitocin or whatever it is you don't want.
GL -- hope mom & baby do awesome, despite an early arrival! 
Will be hoping for a healthy baby/healthy mom. 
) but I'd do it again. I was freaked out at first and never expected to feel the way I did but it was great. I honestly didn't even feel like I'd had surgery. My OB was going to let me go home Saturday (had Owen Thursday) except he needed to stay so I stayed, too.
