Just came across this doozy while looking at competitive listings: “Home births are not allowed on this property.”
Can you imagine the cleanup they must have gone through to feel it necessary to spell this out?!
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This seems like a perfect example of an unnecessary rule.
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have seen a home birth request multiple times on various sites.
I would be paranoid about my insurance…let alone the forensic clean afterwards…
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I don’t know if it would be the best rule if it was amongst other rules but it was the best rule because it was the only rule.
A listing with one single rule: Please make sure to shut the screen door. That was it.
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What if it’s not planned? Like those births that happen in taxis? Do you get a bad review? I bet you do. 
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Kind of brilliant. Only one rule to read, just make sure it’s the one that drives you batty if broken.
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Yeah. Apparently, there was an aggressive raccoon in the neighborhood.
I asked. I said, “you don’t seem to want or need a lot of rules, what’s up with the screen door?”.
Everyone, I mean everyone, has their limits. lol.
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I have a friend who had a small house rental that was used almost exclusively for home births. I don’t know what you folks imagine is involved in a home birth, but I can assure you it doesn’t involve some extensive or forensic cleaning.
Mind you these home births were not some hippy dippy affair where a woman decides to have a baby alone at home.
This was in a small city in Canada where there is an extensive, professional, licensed midwifery system, where the midwives are a part of the health care system, with hospital privileges and working relationships with several doctors. They arrive with oxygen tanks and all sorts of medical equipment, are highly trained, and will transfer the woman to the hospital if anything seems to be abnormal.
This was on Vancouver Island, and there are a number of small islands in the area, so women who live on those islands, where there are no hospitals, have a need for places they can stay for a home birth which are close to a hospital if anything goes south.
The midwives themselves, or the woman’s friends or family deal with dirtied bedding, towels, etc, or they often bring their own. The host doesn’t get left to deal with these things.
The midwives have a list of homes that their clients can rent if needed. It worked out really well for my friend to offer this.
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I saw one yesterday. This is an idea that makes me beyond confused.
This makes sense to me. It is so different from my area, I just don’t think about this situation.
I’m less than 10 minutes from a 1000 bed level 2 hospital trauma center. 15 minutes from a level 1 trauma center 1100 bed teaching hospital. Within a 30 minute drive any direction are 6 smaller hospitals. Within an hour are 2 more 1000 bed hospitals level 1 & 2 trauma centers. Spoiled, simply spoiled.
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This is not in my rules, yet, but I’m sorely tempted. This is the only rule I’ve told my grandchildren, and the primary rule I drilled into my kids: “Don’t do things that you know are wrong.” (I wish I could somehow incorporate my response to them whenever they whined about something; I busted into a raucous rendition of, " You can’t always get what you want… no, no, no." To this day they blanch whenever anybody within earshot starts to whine, "But I want…)
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I had a friend who lived on one of those small islands when I lived on Vancouver Island (which is a huge island, 150km x 400 km) who asked if she could have her birth at my house, which of course I was happy to offer. It was actually 2 ferry rides to her island- one ferry to the next small island, a 10 minute drive across that island, then another ferry ride to Vancouver Island, and a 20 minute drive to my town.
It was actually quite amusing, because she went into labor in the evening, after 6pm when the ferries stopped running, so you have to call them and they will make a special run for you in a medical emergency. There was no real emergency at that point- she was in the early stages of labor, but she knew she had to get to my place as soon as possible, as no one can predict how long it’ll take for the baby to come.
So she called, and was standing in her kitchen washing the dinner dishes when the ferry workers arrived, rushing in with a stretcher.
Of course she didn’t need that, and in fact her labor went on for about 50 hours, and she never did end up having the birth at my house, as her labor wasn’t progressing normally, so the midwives had her transferred to the hospital.
The midwives suspicion that something wasn’t right turned out to be true- the baby was born with her bowels on the outside of her body. But it all turned out okay- it required the baby being airlifted to Childrens’ Hospital in Vancouver, a small incision made by her navel to put the bowels back in place, and a couple of weeks in the hospital to make sure there were no complications, which there weren’t.
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Love this. Also making it into an embroidery hoop so guests can read it without thinking it’s a passive aggressive note. But seriously- it sums everything up doesn’t it?
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I stayed at a rental in Nashville for one night. It’s one of the few rentals I’ve stayed at that had more reviews/been in the business longer than I have. He had one added rule also (I assume the “one rule” people here have the standard Airbnb defaults):
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This isn’t best but fits in the “host pet peeve” category: “Please use squeegee after showering. Water spots are evil.”
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Some of those (maybe all, I’m not sure) don’t show up at all if you don’t click yay or nay. And he had a flexible check-in and checkout. That’s all I remember seeing. That and the screendoor.
I have wondered if a niche would ever develop for airbnb for Medical Assistance in Dying. For people who don’t want to do it in their own home or in a cold hospital room. The reviews wouldn’t work though😆
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I actually did read a post by a host once who had agreed to let someone do this.
It turned out to be a positive experience both for the host, the dying man and his family. And she got a great review.
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I be willing to do either home births or home deaths with an added fee. But it’s not anything I’d want to advertise or have mentioned in a review.
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Please note: Births, weddings and deaths require an extra charge.
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Surely the idea of a “home birth” is to bring your precious new baby into the world in the intimate privacy of your own home surrounded by a loving family/partner.
Why would anyone want to rent a space in a stranger’s house?
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