I just felt really confident that [the midwife] had risk assessed so much that if risks were coming up she would advise me properly what to do. And I thought the really, really bad outcome whether you are at home or at hospital it is still a really, really bad outcome. And I felt there was a lower risk of needing intervention and that escalating if I was at home. But I think a lot of that was to do with my relationship with the community midwife and my trust in her and her experience.
Home births were discussed spontaneously in nearly all interviews because women had either experienced a home birth or actively chosen not to have one. Women’s views on home birth varied widely. Some women believed a home birth to be the best type of care. A common idea expressed about home birth is that childbirth did not need to take place in a hospital setting. For instance, one woman expressed a strong preference for home birth and explicitly linked this to safety: