The XXX Adults Only reason to support home birth and independent midwives:

Where could I possibly be going with this one? Well, my partner's waters broke a good deal of time, well over 24 hours, before the birth of our first child. Had we been in the hospital system, most hospital’s policies would have required that labour be artificially induced within 12 hours of membranes rupturing. Why? To minimise the chance of any infection now that the barrier between baby's world and the outside world had been breached. The thing is, when things are properly managed, it can be perfectly safe to have more than 12 hours between the first act and closing number, so to speak (I so wanted to say, 'when the fat lady sings'). Our primary midwife did a marvelous job of monitoring the situation as things slowly unfolded. Why did it all take so long? All women are different. Some women, more often in first births, will just take a while to do their thing. Unfortunately, hospital policies more often than not rob women of the time and space they sometimes need for nature to gradually (and safely) do its thing: I suspect the reasons here are usually to save $ and/or minimise any risk for possible litigation. Artificial induction can unfortunately start a chain reaction of often unnecessary, and sometimes harmful, interventions. One of the main reasons people often choose to hire independent midwives and have homebirths is to try to (safely) avoid unnecessary intervention.
Enter hero (me) stage right: after running around town trying to locate magical homeopathic tinctures and acupuncturists (none of which did anything at all to get labour happening), our primary midwife suggested how I may in fact hold the key to being able to save the day: yes, she suggested my partner and I go and...yes, I'm absolutely serious (well, if you must know, actual intercourse was not allowed, but…). And, sure enough, it worked like clockwork. Not only did labour start basically immediately, but we were both now much more relaxed and grounded; as if we'd suddenly been removed from the mounting stress and plugged back into the universe where we needed to be. So, to the men out there who may be wondering about their role as a support person, and who may or may not be wondering if home birth is worth considering, need I say more?