20% increase in Home births

Home birth on the rise by a dramatic 20 percent

When my wife and I delivered my first son at home just the two of us it was still a rare event in 1974 in the U.S. My wife had decided she wanted a "Natural Home birth" and we prepared by taking a Lamaze Natural Childbirth class together then in 1974. However, in the end we were the only ones who "Actually" had natural childbirth of all our class members because all the others "chickened out" in the end. 

Now, at 63 I have very mixed feelings about this event because if anything major had gone wrong my young wife and son (either or both) might have died. However, I and my wife and son were lucky because everything turned out okay in the end and my son was literally "Born Free". I think we paid $25 for the Lamaze course and the shoestring to tie off the umbilical cord and scissors to cut the cord and denatured alcohol to sterilize everything were probably under 5 to 10 dollars then in 1974. However, there were some very tense moments along the way since both my wife and I were novices at this. The best decision probably was to let her crown sitting on the toilet by using gravity and then slipping off to the bathroom floor to let him come all the way out. Also, I was unaware of the amount of amniotic fluid that comes out with the birth which filled our bathroom with about 2 to 3 inches of amniotic fluid and blood and everything. If this had come out anywhere else in our place it would have ruined the carpet and would have been difficult for us to replace as we were young and poor still like most young couples in their early twenties. But after it was all over it was a very proud moment to call my parents to come over to see their new grandson!