This is the birth of my third child, Sage Darian on Christmas morning (the other two were also homebirths, vids in the way!) My midwife, Susan Lees, delivered all my babies and her presence during my Christmas Eve labour and Christmas Morning birth was awe-inspiring. Thank you, Sue!!!! No mother would ever put her unborn child at risk. As a homebirther of 3 myself, it was imperative to me that my pregnancies were monitored very closely by my midwife and my OB. Only once all physical birthing conditions were right and we were all confident that the births would run smoothly, did we finalise our decisions to homebirth. Once labour commences, the midwife is called and she in turn calls the OB to put him or her on stand by. Initial communication with the midwife is telephonic until such time that you feel you need to have her there. For some people it’s in the early stages of labour, for some it's later. That is entirely a personal choice. Throughout the labour the midwife is doing cervical checks and monitors the heartrate of the baby with a doppler RELIGIOUSLY. If the midwife AT ANY STAGE feels that you are not dilating and that in turn could place stress on the foetus, then she will call the OB and tell him/her that you are on the way to the hospital STILL IN EARLY STAGES OF LABOUR BEFORE THE BABY IS IN DISTRESS. This often ends in a C-section if the mother was not dilating. Back to homebirths: Once you are 10cm dilated, and the baby is on the way down, there is no turning