Celebrating National Home Birth Day: The Power and Peace of Birthing at Home
📷 A Very Special Reflection
In honor of this day, I’m sharing a very special photo of the first family I ever served as a doula birthing in their home. This family gave me the honor of walking alongside them as they brought new life into the world—surrounded by love, strength, and trust. Their birth will always hold a sacred place in my heart, and I am forever grateful for the way they welcomed me into that space.
National Home Birth Day, we pause to honor the strength, choice, and sacred space of families who choose to welcome their babies into the world from the comfort of home.
Home birth is not just a location—it’s a philosophy of care centered on trust, autonomy, and connection. It brings birth back to where many believe it belongs: in a familiar environment, surrounded by chosen support, and guided by skilled professionals who hold space, not control.
🌿 Why Home Birth Matters
For many families, home birth offers:
• A calm and familiar environment
The sensory comfort of home—your lighting, your sounds, your bed—can reduce adrenaline and increase oxytocin, the hormone that supports labor progress and bonding.
• Individualized, hands-on care
With midwives and doulas supporting physiologic birth, home birth allows time, presence, and attentiveness that can be hard to find in more medicalized settings.
• Respect for informed choice
At home, families are often more involved in decision-making, with care tailored to their values and needs—not one-size-fits-all protocols.
• Lower rates of intervention
Studies show that planned home births with licensed midwives for low-risk pregnancies have lower rates of cesarean birth, epidural use, and episiotomy, while maintaining excellent outcomes for parents and babies.¹
• Continuity and connection
Home birth providers often build long-term relationships with clients, fostering trust and emotional safety throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
🧡 Honoring the Families and Midwives Who Make It Possible
At Monadnock Perinatal, I’ve had the profound honor of supporting home birth families as a doula. I am endlessly inspired by the courage, intuition, and trust these families embody—and deeply grateful to the local midwives who make safe, supported home births possible with their clinical wisdom and compassionate hearts.
To the families who have welcomed me into your most intimate moments—thank you. Your births are etched into my heart. Each one is a reminder that birth can be powerful, peaceful, and profoundly personal.
📷 A Very Special Reflection
In honor of this day, I’m sharing a very special photo of the first family I ever served as a doula birthing in their home. This family gave me the honor of walking alongside them as they brought new life into the world—surrounded by love, strength, and trust. Their birth will always hold a sacred place in my heart, and I am forever grateful for the way they welcomed me into that space.
✨ Birth Where You Feel Safe
Home birth is not the right choice for every family—but for those who are drawn to it, it can be a transformative, affirming, and joyful experience.
As we celebrate National Home Birth Day, may we continue advocating for access to midwifery care, respect for birth choices, and safe, supported births in all settings.
📌 Interested in learning more about planning a home birth, or how doulas support families at home?
Let’s connect. I’d be honored to walk beside you on this journey.
💛
Ashley Norris, IBCLC, CD(DONA), CCCE
Monadnock Perinatal, LLC
