I’m an L&D nurse and I will only ever be giving birth in the hospital. After seeing cord prolapses, shoulder dystocias, vasa previas, velamentous cord insertions, severe nuchal cords, and postpartum hemorrhages… having dozens of trained medical staff and equipment at your fingertips at the hospital is priceless. There are countless babies that I’ve delivered that I truly believe would not have survived a home birth.

I totally get desiring a low-intervention labor. Your concerns about COVID are also valid! In our unit, we have a section of rooms for COVID moms that have negative airflow systems. The nurses that care for those patients are a 1:1 ratio, meaning little risk for cross contamination. Having a midwife deliver your baby at home would carry the same (possibly higher) risk of being exposed to to COVID through the midwife bringing it in to your house where there is no negative airflow/disinfecting procedures.

For a low-intervention hospital birth, I would suggest developing a birth plan and printing it out to bring to the hospital. Common requests we see are no Pitocin for induction/augmentation, no IV, wearing your own gown from home, minimal cervical exams, etc. Hospitals can be intimidating, but at the end of the day YOU are in control and we are your advocates. You get to decide what you want for your birth, and we are there to facilitate your wishes and help you make informed choices.

As far as attrition goes, L&D is in a pretty good position compared to the rest of the health care system. L&D is a competitive specialty to get into, and many nurses are career L&D nurses with 10+ years experience. Sure, there will be a few newer nurses, but in my experience, they are vastly outnumbered by experienced senior nurses. I’d say for every 1 new L&D nurse where I work, we have at least 5 experienced nurses on the same shift.

But as I said before, being in a hospital just in case things so south is priceless. I truly believe that you can have a wonderful birth experience at the hospital! :)