Start At Home

Today as I was watching HGTV, I had an idea based off the current slogan "Life's Biggest Moments Start at Home" and some of the taglines in the commercials that describes home as a place for new beginnings and celebrations.

If there ever were to be slogans and taglines for homebirthing families, those would be it. There are alot of birth shows on TV, all of which are centered around highly medicalized births. There are a growing number of families in the United States who are considering, planning and having at home birth (sometimes called DIY births). I see that HGTV has a unique opportunity to show how homes can be the best place to start life and a place where that new beginning can be celebrated.

I can envision a show where a homebirthing expert (typically a midwife) consults with families planning a homebirth to make the necessary preparations for their homes: including birth tubs, birth kits and bedding for expectant families, new moms and newborn babies.

I would love to see a show like this portraying birth as a "normal" event that families can celebrate within their homes, as opposed to the unnaturalness of hospital birthing. The homebirthing community and supporters are looking for the media to portray birth in the way it ideally can be for the majority of families. HGTV could place a special role in this.

I wrote the above to HGTV today and I'm now looking to garner support for a TV show that would portray homebirth accurately as a safe option for birthing babies. I've created a petition that will hopefully indicate the level of interest in the homebirth community for a TV show of this nature:

To sign the petition and show your commitment to positive portrayals of homebirth in the media, go to: http://www.petitiononline.com/TVbirth/petition.html