I’ve dreamt of a home birth since before having children was even a reality for me. Because of who I am and what ideals I hold dear, home birth is the most appealing option. Other women divine their own preferences and home birth could never properly fit in their world. I’m glad that, at least, we all have a choice.

Because home birth has recently fallen out of fashion, most people are mystified by the whole idea. I’ve had mothers of several children ask me, “Well, what do you do at a home birth?”

Home birthing isn’t rocket science. After all, hospital birthing has become the norm only in the last 60 years when anesthesia became widespread practice. It’s fascinating to me that in a short 60 years, our society has lost touch with something that was considered “normal” since time immemorial.

Of course, home birthing isn’t for everyone. Only about 10% of US women home birth today. Most women feel more comfortable in a hospital, and so those women shouldn’t attempt a homebirth. Other women trust that birthing is a natural event and do not want modern intervention to stall or disrupt their empowering transition into motherhood. Hospitals have a lot of fancy tools, and they are encouraged to use them. Things like fetal monitoring, inducement drugs, and pain relief are all interventions that home birthing mothers are quite happy to go without, and in fact, home birthing mothers see those tools as a threat to having a healthy birth. And quite frankly, the evidence in on their side.

If a woman is planning a home birth, she has a lot more to prepare than if she were to have a hospital birth.

I can’t really call myself an ex-pat anymore. I’ve been in the US for over four months now, and won’t leave for another six. When I bought the one-way US tickets, I didn’t know I was pregnant, nor did I plan to be so sedentary in the eastern US. Maeli and I envisioned returning to Hong Kong in January of 2010. Until then, I was to take us on an extended back packing trip for a month, coupled with a month of WWOOFing somewhere, preferably on the west coast.

I quit my job in HK. I was working from the US, developing lessons for an e-learning company. I’ve been working with this company for almost a year now. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy working from home, or exercising my brain. I simply didn’t have the time to work.

I first learned of the Farm while reading Spiritual Midwifery during my first pregnancy. Further research brought me to understand the origins of the Farm, which certainly encouraged me to learn more. Ina May Gaskin has an impressive history as one of the most famous midwives in all of the world. She heads the Farm midwifery center in Summertown, Tennessee. She served as president of the Midwives Alliance of North America for six years. Among other awards, Ina May was chosen as visiting fellow at Yale University in 2003. She is quite simply a hero to many women, including myself.

Aaron and I have recently visited the Farm midwifery center. Although I did not meet Ina May herself, we spent about 2 hours with one of her 5 midwife associates, who has also been at the Farm since its beginning. Here are my reasons for driving over 9 hours to TN to see a midwife:

I have mostly spent the National Holiday holed up in the Kude Labs office, preparing to head back to the US in one week. Thankfully a few friends here at least dragged me out to Shamian Island and Shangxiajiu yesterday. On the actual day of the anniversary, I wandered around the neighborhood, but the crowds kept me from venturing too far.