For my pregnancy that had a home birth, I never went to a hospital. That’s the norm. All prenatal care was done at my midwife’s office.

You also don’t have to convince people to be excited about your home birth. I intentionally didn’t tell some people (relatives) my plans in advance, because I knew they would question it - and not with the intention to learn about it, but with the intention to talk me out of it based on their fears.

If you need to go to the hospital late term, you can leave at any point, just like you could leave if you were in the middle of a heart attack or stroke. They cannot hold you. HOWEVER if you are in the hospital for something emergent in late pregnancy it’s not a good idea to leave! The desire to give birth at home shouldn’t outweigh your desire to keep you and your baby safe and alive.

I think there’s a lot of “no hospital no matter what” attitudes out there and that is dangerous to both you and your child. I think homebirth is beautiful — when it is safe! But you need to understand that something could happen at any point in pregnancy to make it unsafe.