With my first pregnancy I had no idea that people even did home births intentionally! I was 7 months pregnant before I thought it was a good idea. There was little time and the military wouldn’t pay for a midwife, so I settled for an OB in a birthing center with my doula. They wouldn’t let me do a water birth, but the natural birth to my now 11 month-old son was still wonderful and beautiful. Now I am pregnant again, but living in Japan with the military and it looks like it is not an option for me now, either. I do not speak the language well enough, and there are not Japanese midwives available within an hour’s drive, and the military again will not pay nor let me birth in base housing. We return to the US in 2012 and that sounds like a good time to have #3. We will be planning to live off base, save for a midwife, do the research, and have a water birth at home. It may be a little ways down the road, but I’m sure we’ll get to experience this some day!