Please note that these are our own personal convictions, reasons, and conclusions.  They are not to be construed as medical advice, nor are they intended to pass judgment on anyone who has chosen differently or disagrees.  They are simply an explanation of why we do things the way we do.

Safety

• A woman has already been exposed to all the germs in her own home. She has also passed along these antibodies to her unborn baby. Mom and baby, however, have not been exposed to everything in the hospital, where all the sick germs are, so the risk of infection is much higher for both. Continual vaginal exams provide further opportunity for germs to make their way into Mom’s body, as do interventive procdures, such as IV’s.
• Many hospitals still require that a woman lie on her back to give birth, for the convenience of the staff and the use of their equipment. This position does not allow the baby’s head (or other presenting part) to press against the cervix and cause it to dilate properly, which can lead to “failure to progress”, as well as unnecessary pain. It causes the weight of the uterus and baby to compress a major artery, causing hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in the baby. This position also keeps the baby’s weight against the perineum, making tears more likely.
• Most hospitals will not allow a laboring woman to eat or drink, unnecessarily causing a naturally long labor to become a problem, because of fatigue and hunger.  This usually results in a cesarean section, which poses additional risks to both mom and baby. (For example, the maternal death rate for cesarean delivery is 6 times that of vaginal delivery. Cesarean sections are also often responsible for respiratory difficulties in the newborn.)
• Hospitals are not equipped to handle breech births naturally, because of poor positioning during labor and lack of training of most obtetricians today. This makes most hospital breech births automatic cesarean sections (although the National Institute of Health advises against routine use of cesareans in breech deliveries). The same is true for twins.
• Labor induction drugs, the supine position, and fetal monitoring, among other things, can cause fetal distress, necessitating a cesarean section.
• Labor induction drugs cause stronger contractions than natural labor, causing more women to resort to pain relieving drugs which slow their labor and keep them from pushing effectively. This can result in a cycle of induction drugs and pain relieving drugs, as well as causing distress in the baby and fatigue and lack of
  satisfaction in the mother.
• Hospital staff usually cut the umbilical cord immediately, depriving the baby of blood that his body needs and forcing him to breathe entirely on his own before he’s ready. Delaying the cutting of the cord until it has stopped pulsating allows the baby an easier transition to breathing, as well as allowing the remainder of his blood to be transferred to his body from the placenta. This, along with allowing the placenta to deliver naturally, will also prevent the baby’s blood from mixing with the mother’s, greatly reducing the chances of Rh incompatibility
  becoming a problem.
• In the hospital, the placenta is usually delivered right away following the birth. This is usually too early for the body to be ready, so doctors routinely tug the umbilical cord and/or press on the woman’s uterus. This can cause the placenta to tear, and usually causes the placenta to separate from the uterus before the uterus is ready, which results in loss of more blood than necessary, and sometimes even life-threatening hemorrhaging. The doctors then “fix” this by administering drugs. Forcing the placenta to separate before the body is ready can also cause the baby’s blood to mix with the mother’s, making Rh incompatibility an issue.

The well-being of the baby and our right to make decisions concerning her

• In the hospital, babies are born into very brightly-lit rooms with lots of noise. After being in the dark womb where all sounds are muffled by flesh and fluids, this is a harsh beginning to life outside mom’s body.
• In the hospital, baby is rarely allowed to spend the first little while after birth peacefully bonding with mom. Instead, he’s passed from stranger to stranger, being handled like merchandise to complete hospital protocol.
• Most hospitals will not allow immediate breastfeeding, as the baby is being shuttled around from person to person for weighing, measuring, poking, prodding, and testing.
• Most hospital nurseries routinely give babies pacifiers and/or bottles of water or sugar water (often against the parents’ explicit instructions). This is detrimental to the establishment of breastfeeding, which is very clearly
  healthier for baby and mom than formula-feeding.
• Several other health issues, as mentioned under “Safety”

Emotional Benefits

• Home is the place that mom is familiar with, and therefore is most comfortable.  At home, she doesn’t have to worry about the multitude of medical staff watching her, she can simply be herself and have a baby.
• At the hospital, even normal birth is treated like a disease or an emergency; it’s neither. At home, birth is treated as a natural part of life, only to be interfered with in rare instances of true emergency.
• At home, the birthing woman can adopt whatever position she chooses, go wherever she chooses, and eat or drink whenever she’s hungry or thirsty.
• At home, the laboring woman’s husband can be as uninvolved or as involved as mom and dad want him to be, without his being in the way of the medical staff, or being pushed aside.

Spiritual Conviction

• The husband is the head and priest of his family. In the hospital, he is required to sign his authority over and responsibility for his wife and child over to another man. This is in clear violation of scriptural principles, as a
  woman is to submit to her own husband as to the Lord.
• The Bible makes it clear that a woman’s body belongs to her husband and that the marriage bed is to be kept pure. In the hospital, she is required to bare herself to whomever it’s deemed necessary to, and to allow herself to be touched by another man’s or woman’s hands.  [We are okay with this when it is truly medically necessary, but that is rarely the case for a healthy, normal birth.]
• A Christian home is presumed to be free of demonic activity and satanic footholds. The same cannot be said of the hospital. The last thing Satan wants is another baby born to a Christian family to be raised to fight against
  him. We open ourselves up to satanic attack during childbirth by allowing ourselves to be in a place where demons have the authority to roam freely, rather than in our own homes where they have no place.