●

I mentioned earlier that we had our first hospital appointment with the midwife last week. I've not had positive experiences with hospitals in the past, and PB absolutely dreads them and this visit did nothing to change either of our minds. The whole thing was appalling, from start to finish. The midwife was rude, pressed for time and clearly very disgruntled with her job. I sat while she piled me up with wads of pamphlets – none of which she could elaborate on – feeling comforted only by our earlier discussions of a home birth, the ordeal only cementing in my mind that it's the right thing for us. Originally I had not considered a home birth, I thought women just went to the hospital and that was that. PB dropped the hint a few times, but it wasn't until I stumbled across the beautiful Marvelous Kiddo blog that I really considered it. One morning I sat at my computer reading Leigh's home birth story (images above), and by the end of it I was sobbing into my porridge. I spent the day reading up on the rest of her blog and researching home birth. When PB came home I told him I'd like to consider it, and he was thrilled (being a big old hippie at heart!) I showed him Leigh's story and it almost moved him to tears too. So I guess we can take a positive stance on the icky hospital trip, that's it's not for us! It may be right for some people and that's their choice, but this is ours. We're really excited to be able to welcome our new little friend into a place we love, surrounded by things and sounds and smells we love. But first there is still a lot more bun baking to be done!

PS. Thanks Leigh for your lovely email, and lots of happy wishes for you and your family.