Stories from homebirth midwives

This article presents some reflections from homebirth midwives as they talked about different aspects of their working lives. These independent practitioners spoke candidly about why they chose homebirth midwifery, about the nature of their work, about the philosophies and politics guiding their practice and what lessons they learnt from the experience. How homebirth midwifery impacted on their lives as women, mothers, daughters and lovers is also explored. Reflections such as these are important in the history of women's ideas, especially about those aspects of women's lives that are linked to birth and midwifery - predominantly private and public domains of women.