Home Birth

Home Birth focuses on the experiences of women whose choices were opposed by health professionals during their pregnancy. It explores ideas of risk and informed choice in pregnancy and birth and uses ten women's narratives to explore why women might want to give birth at home.

Mary L. Nolan is Professor of Perinatal Education at the University of Worcester, UK. She is also Senior Tutor at the National Childbirth Trust.

1. Policy - does it mean what it says? 2. Choosing Home Birth Against Medical Advice 3. Fear and Risk 4. Choice, Bullying and Coercion 5. Communication and Language 6. Avoidance, Subversion and Confrontation 7. Stress in Pregnancy and Birth 8. Men's Experience of Home Birth Against Medical Advice 9. Free Birth: the end of the choice continuum 10. Advocacy, Empathy and Autonomy 11. The Dialectic between Possibilities and Limits