Choosing between a hospital or home birth is one of the key decisions you will face as a pregnant mama. Making choices around your birth can feel a little overwhelming. It can be easy to procrastinate on this and put it off. But actually, that's the last thing you should do, because once you start getting your head around things, you realise that there's actually quite a lot for you to consider. It's not like you have a bunch of inconsequential decisions to make. Each decision you're faced with has the potential to have quite an impact depending on how things go. But whichever way things end up going on the day, you will need to live with your decisions. So for the sake of your future feelings about your birth, I would urge you to spend the time up front getting savvy on things so that you feel well-enough informed on the various aspects of birth. No-one else is responsible for the birth of your baby other than you and your partner; your responsibility for the little one start now.

Hospital or home birth?

In today's podcast, I want to help you think through the hospital or home birth dilemma. To help me, I'm going to be joined by Sonia Killik.

Sonia is the author of the book Birth {f**k yeah!} in which she urges and empowers expectant mothers to take back control of their bodies and their births. In a medicated world dominated by caesareans, interventions and impersonality, this step-by-step guide navigates the world of pregnancy and birth. It provides an in-depth account of all the options available to expectant women – from midwives and doulas, home and hospital births, and all the drugs and interventions in between – leaving the reader fully-equipped, knowledgeable and ready to take on nature’s biggest and most rewarding challenge – to bring a baby into this world.

During our chat, Sonia draws on a lot of the research that she carried out as part of the writing for her book. One thing is clear: she desperately wants to arm you with the facts so that you can make a decision that's right for you. By sharing her own personal experience of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, this book is an honest, empowering and highly readable guideline to childbirth;

Learn about each birthing method available to you

How your birthing choice effects your baby and yourself

Pre and post birth guides and support

Breastfeeding and formula choices

I have to warn you though, Sonia and I are both pretty passionate when it comes to birth and helping women to be informed and feel empowered about their birth, and we did have a few rants! But I hope that in doing we help you to figure out what feels more appropriate for you: hospital or home birth.

Sonia was a true super-star on the podcast too because she came armed with a ton of facts and statistics around birth, and I hope that this helps you when trying to navigate all this when it comes to chossing between a hospital or home birth. But that's not all. She's also provided a load of extra FREE goodies to help you on your pregnancy and birthing journey, but I'll tell you about those in a bit.

We covered so much during our chat, including

the difference between a hospital birth and a home birth

some statistics on the the level interventions encountered during hospital births versus home births

statistics on the safety of home birth

why a clinical or hospital environment is not conducive to birth

important considerations for a hospital or home birth

the need to consider birth holistically when making your birth choices

how some birth choices impact you and your baby over the long-term, and why it's important to bear long-term impact in mind

insights into how care providers within the hospital environment might be approaching birth

why striving for a natural birth doesn't mean that you get it

why she considers birth to be a conscious journey

the importance of not judging yourself for how things ultimately pan out,