Ashley Johnson is traumatized by hospitals. Johnson, a Memphis native, gave birth to three children in one — but her first birth was by far one of the scariest experiences she ever lived through to tell.
At age 15, Johnson delivered her first child at one of Tennessee‘s oldest operating hospitals, in Memphis. During the process, she developed preeclampsia, a high blood pressure condition, which doctors didn’t explain to her “until I started seizuring,” she says. Johnson also developed a fever that doctors tried to treat with an exorbitant amount of IV fluid, causing her entire body to swell. “I felt like I was drowning because I had so much body fluid.”
After enduring 12 hours of labor, Johnson gave birth to her son but later started seizing again. While Johnson, now 32, and her son Marcus, now 17, survived the ordeal, the most troubling part of her birthing experience was getting dismissed by doctors during the process, she says.
“I didn’t feel like I had a voice,” says Johnson, who is Black and lives in Olive Branch, Miss. “I didn’t feel like anyone cared…even when I expressed to them that I was experiencing pain, something was wrong — this isn’t right.” Johnson’s experience led her to giving birth to her daughter, one-year-old Navi, at home. Unlike the hospital staff, Johnson’s midwife “treated me with grace,” she adds.
Like Johnson, there is a growing number of women who are deciding to give birth in the comfort of their own home. Home births in the U.S. rose 12% from 2020 to 2021, reaching the highest level in 30 years, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And while home births increased across all races of women during the pandemic, data shows that Black women experienced the highest increase of 21% in 2021. There is also a fair amount of support for home births on social media forums, where a 2024 study analyzing 47,000 comments on Reddit and TikTok found that a majority of women (53%) had positive attitudes toward it.
Home births, of course, still remain rare, representing just 1.41% of births in 2021, according to the CDC. And they don’t come without risk: While most women deliver safely, research suggests that planned home births are associated with a higher risk of infant death, seizures and nervous system disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic.
But more women say they are choosing home births to have more control over the birthing process. That’s especially the case for Black women, who are three times more likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than white women. Experts link the higher maternal mortality rate to bias, pre-existing health conditions and a lack of access to care, especially for women living in rural areas.
The number of women opting for home births will continue to rise, according to Ashaki Tobias, who has been a doula since 2021 and is a healthy birth ambassador for Sista MidWife Productions, a birth advocacy, training and consulting agency in New Orleans, Louisiana. The push for midwifery care, she says, is growing — especially in places like Louisiana, where groups like hers are fighting for legislation so people giving birth can have more options.
“One of the biggest things that I’m seeing is lack of individual care,” Tobias says about patients. “Another thing is not feeling heard or respected in the birthing space.”
Comfort From Past Trauma
Samvia Henry, 34, gave birth to three of her eight children at home. In 2018, she gave birth to her fifth child at a full-service hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, which she says was a complete nightmare.
“I didn’t have a say in anything,” Henry says, including an epidural that doctors forced her to get. One even told her that they didn’t want her to give birth to a “dead” baby. “It was the scariest moment to me, because I realized that…it don’t matter… what color you are, what race you are —- it’s a systematic approach.”
Henry’s home births with her next three children, on the other hand, were much different. Henry says she loves the feeling of waking up in her own bed the morning after giving birth, without getting disturbed by medical staff who would poke her and her baby and impact her sleep at the hospital. She also enjoys not having to pack a hospital bag, and not worrying about potentially bringing home germs from the hospital.
“[Midwives] clean up everything,” Henry says. “They make sure that I eat. To me, that’s first-class care.” Henry’s husband and children also help with home births, she adds.
Other women, like Diyasha Jones, 30, of Charlotte, North Carolina, say education played a role in her decision. From her very first pregnancy experience, Jones, now a mother of five, immediately started looking up midwives and doulas for home births. She also watched the 2008 documentary film about America’s maternity care system called “The Business of Being Born,” which “really opened my eyes” to the negative treatment of women in the hospital while in labor, she says. Jones gave birth to her five children at home, and chose to have a freebirth — delivering a baby without medical assistance or a midwife — for four of them. While Jones’ husband initially had his reservations, he came around to the idea, she says. Jones also learned of methods to help ease pain – including a “pushing motion on my back,” she says.
But most importantly Jones wanted to feel comfortable in her own home.
“You’re in your own familiar setting,” Jones says. “A lot of women don’t realize…that when you’re at home, that’s your safe haven, that’s your sense of peace — and your body knows that.” She also says women are allowed to do what they want in their own environment, such as lighting candles, playing music and having people over during the labor process.
Aside from comfort, home births can potentially ease some of the financial burden for expecting mothers. Johnson of Mississippi said she was billed $30,000 after the birth of her second child in the hospital, even though she was on an insurance plan. Johnson’s home birth, meanwhile, cost only $4,500. Henry also said she saved thousands of dollars opting for home births. However, home births aren’t always the cheapest option, as costs can range between $4,000 to $20,000. Hospital births, on average, cost $18,865 without insurance, according to the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation Health System Tracker, per Forbes, and out-of-pocket costs with insurance average $2,854.
Certified midwives who assist in home births are usually covered by insurance but vary depending on the provider and state, while doulas typically aren’t covered under private insurance. Yet, there are exceptions in states like Louisiana and New York, where doula care is covered under Medicaid. A number of nonprofits and community programs provide free and low-cost doula support, including Citywide Doula Initiative and Community of Caring in the New York City area, and the Joy in Birthing Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
A Sense of Empowerment
Jones of North Carolina views the home birthing experience as empowering for Black women. She says the media often depicts home births and natural births as negative, which prompted her to share her birthing experience online to show viewers they can have a “calm” and “quiet” birth.
“Birth is an unexpected thing,” Jones says. “You just never know how it’s going to go. But if you can be in control of yourself and [in] control of your emotions, you can birth exactly how you want.”
Johnson’s traumatic hospital experiences are forever engraved in her memory. The birth of her first child would have been “100% better” if she did it at home, she believes. But now, she’s raising awareness through her YouTube channel — which has over 16,000 subscribers — by providing an intimate look into her home birth experience along with interviews with her midwife (a registered nurse with years of training) and advice on how mothers can prepare for birthing at home, including managing pain.
Not all Black women are interested in home births, and many — such as those with high-risk pregnancies, or who have previously had Cesarean sections — may be better off choosing a hospital delivery.
But for women like Johnson, Jones and Henry, who have opted for home births and enjoyed the experience, they say it’s worth it. “I would do it over a hospital birth, again and again,” Johnson says on her YouTube page. ◼️
