Kate stay warm - perfect excuse for a peppermint hot choc at starbucks (my poison du jour!)
AWCH the entire family except DH was against a homebirth at first, led by my mother. But once she met the MW, she changed her tune and now is HB proponent numero uno.
The amazing thing is that I am starting to realise the Internet has really transformed our access to information and knowledge about birth. I was reading the Ina May guide to childbirth the other evening and so many of the stories said things like "I just happened across a book about natural childbirth in the bargain bin at a bookstore" or "A friend told me about someone who had a home birth", but that was it. Whereas I have been able to watch videos of waterbirths, homebirths, breach births, read blogs written by midwives, download an iPhone app that tells me what's going on every week, has a contraction timer etc etc.
When I was explaining to my mother and aunts about oxytocin getting labour started and that it's inhibited by the release of adrenaline, so that's why it's important to avoid any stress (eg. bright lights, strangers, unfamiliar surroundings) all three just looked totally blank. And these are well educated high powered women - but somehow learning about the processes of their own bodies is so low on the priority list as to actively be shunned, like somehow being interested in the processes of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding meant being chained barefoot to the kitchen sink.