Written by Bethany Cothran

In a cold hospital room, Scarlen Valderaz gave birth to her first child in a room full of strangers, enduring the pain of childbirth while tackling every question thrown her way.

Finally seeing her baby boy, she was ecstatic, but she knew that she did not want to have another baby in a hospital.

“We actually didn’t know until my husband and I talked about our first born again that they kept offering me an epidural, and I had to say no because I didn’t want that,” Valderaz said. “…the last thing that you want to do when you’re pushing an entire baby out is having to make good decisions that are going to affect you.”

A couple years went by and Valderaz discovered she was pregnant once again, and this time, things would be different.

Valderaz and her husband researched and interviewed midwife after midwife, not stopping until they found the one they trusted best to deliver their baby.

Trading the cold hospital full of strangers and illnesses for the warmth and comfort of her own home, Valderaz could relax and give herself the space she needed to do what she felt would be best for her and the baby. 

“We go with homebirth because now there’s so much that happens in the medical system, especially when it comes to the lady through it,” Valderaz said. “There is a lot of autonomy that gets stripped away from the woman when she’s birthing.”

For Valderaz, there would be no race to the hospital for an on-call OB to deliver the child, she would instead be in the safety of her bedroom surrounded by her husband and trusted midwife. Rather than staring at the foreign furniture of a delivery room for hours with her baby wheeled away to the nursery soon after, she would look to her familiar bedroom walls and know that her baby would always be close to her.

“After you’re done, you get to be in your bed,” Valderaz said. “You’re not in a cold hospital room where you know people you don’t even know are trying to hold your baby, press on your belly, all that. So, you’re at home with your partner, your family.”

After a great experience with the home birth system, the Valderazes were certain this was the way best suited for them to bring a child into the world. 

“We have to feel safe in order for our body to be like, ‘okay, you can release this baby because you’re safe.’ And for the most part, most women feel safe at home,” Valderaz said. “So, that’s where your body, the hormones need to be to get released, and your body lets go, your mind lets go as well.”

Keeping close contact with their midwife, they were able to direct any questions or concerns to her directly, creating a more personal connection with someone playing a major role in their future lives.

“When you remove yourself from the traditional medical model, where you go into a midwifery model, it’s completely natural to be playing a midwife,” Valderaz said. “Typically they’re local midwives in your area and you interview them, as many as you want, and you can ensure that your midwife has the same values and beliefs that you do, will give you full informed consent when presenting interventions or tests or anything that happens throughout pregnancy and labor.

With a good bond established with their midwife, Valderaz had no trouble reconnecting when they received news that they were pregnant once again. However, this time they were having twins.

After another nine months of check-ups and preparation, Valderaz delivered the twins on her own terms. With the delivery being harder than the last, a team of midwives and doulas came to be by her side, ensuring that everything went smoothly.

“There’s something different when you know, you do it unmedicated, physiological,” Valderaz said. “You’re like, ‘I did this birth,’ and then you have a [roughly] eight pound baby.”

Now, it’s been almost a year since the twins were born, and as their boys grow up, Valderaz’s own home birth community does too. 

In December 2023, Valderaz created a private Facebook group for midwives, doulas, mothers who have had a home birth and expecting mothers considering home birth. Called the Chattanooga Home Birth Community, Valderaz wanted to create a designated space for women in similar circumstances to be open and supportive of one another.

“Here in Chattanooga, we’re so blessed to have highly skilled and kind, loving midwives, in that all you have to do is go to their website,” Valderaz said. “You can even Google them if you want, go to mom groups and ask for them. They can go to my group, chat into the homebirth community where we have an entire directory of midwives.”

Through Valderaz’s group, the community strives to lift each other up and support one another through the challenging but beautiful experience of giving birth in a more natural way. 

“We’re in a culture where women are artificially empowered,” Valderaz said. “But, the most empowering thing is to have a baby and have your own body do that work for you, have your own body push it out, that just does wonders to your mindset, your spirituality and to your family as well.”

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