A story broke yesterday that will put a chill into the heart of any expectant mom. But it will likely come as a particularly unwelcome shock to those who are planning for a home birth: A young Australian woman who had been a staunch, outspoken advocate for home birth, died last week following the birth of her second child, whom she delivered at home, attended by midwives.

According to reports, 36-year-old Caroline Lovell was able to hold her newborn daughter in her arms, but was already in cardiac arrest and critical condition when paramedics arrived to transport her to the hospital for care. Lovell died the next day. Her baby, Zahra, survived. Lovell also had a 3-year-old daughter, named Lulu.

It was go, granny, go, as an Ohio woman attempted to rush her daughter, who was in labor, to the hospital. Around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, Donna Richmond was clocked going 90 miles per hour in her mission to make sure her grandchild was born safely in the hospital as planned.

Only her plan was thwarted, as a police officer stopped her for speeding. “I knew I was going fast, I didn’t know I was going that fast,” Donna Richmond told WBNS-TV. When the officer approached the car, Debbie Richmond called out from the backseat, "I'm in labor!"

Thankfully, the officer let them off with a warning. But it was too late.

At birth, full-term babies born in the U.S. tip the scales, on average, at around 7 pounds, 8 ounces, which of course doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of mothers giving birth to babies both smaller and larger. My healthy babies both weighed around 6 pounds (give or take a few ounces) when they made their debut -- though they didn't stay that small for long!

And bigger? Well, a woman in Iowa has just given birth to a baby boy that CNN reports might just be the largest infant ever to have been born "naturally" in the state. How big was the baby, Asher Stewardson? He weighed in at a whopping 13 pounds, 12 ounces, and measured 23 1/2 inches long! And get this, Asher's amazing mother delivered him vaginally, after six hours of pushing and with no drugs (nope, no epidural, no nothin').

I'll just give you a minute to take that in …

Last month, a 24-year-old Muslim man was arrested after assaulting a nurse trying to deliver the baby his wife was working hard to push out. It seems that, in an effort to make her more comfortable and help her prepare for the final countdown before the newborn debuted, the poor nurse tried to take off the laboring woman’s burqa. Her husband spotted the scene unfolding through a window, broke down a locked door, and punched the nurse dead in the face.

Now, that’s an extreme example of what shouldn’t happen when a gal is huffing and puffing her way through the process of bringing forth new life. And suffice it to say that abusing the medical professionals is generally foolish since they guarantee all ends well in the birthing room. But physical altercations aside, there are other things that men shouldn’t say or do in interest of keeping the peace in the delivery room.

Would you ever consider a home birth? If so, you're in growing company: The number of women skipping the hospital and delivering their babies right in the comfort of their own bedroom (or bathroom or kitchen or, for all I know, TV room) has risen sharply in the past few years, according to government data released Thursday. How sharply? Well, between 2004 and 2009, home births here in the United States shot up a full 29%.

Although overall it's still less than one percent of women who opt to give birth at home, that's a pretty dramatic trend. So, seriously, would you do it?

RileyWhen my friend Jennifer Lister was expecting her third child, I was so happy. She's an amazing person, a fantastic mother. Jennifer and I don't live near each other anymore so we keep up on Facebook and I was so excited to virtually be there as her pregnancy progressed. Then she had a miscarriage. Everyone was naturally upset. But it was almost like Jen was the one to make us all get through it, even though it was she who was hurting and affected the most. She is a nurturer. So when she became pregnant again, we all rejoiced and prayed.

When she told us they wanted to rush her to c-section, we worried. When she told us her baby girl, beautiful Riley, had Down Syndrome, we worried for her health. But we learned quickly about the power of positivity, and we know Riley is here to do great things. Jennifer is allowing me to share her birth story, and how she sees Riley as a gift. On Down Syndrome, she says, "There's nothing down about it."

Beyonce had a baby girl named Blue Ivy Carter as I'm sure you've heard. I'm really happy for her and Jay-Z -- truly I am. But I am not happy about how things went down at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC where she gave birth. I almost feel like I can't blame Beyonce and Jay-Z though. All they did was ask the hospital if they could rent out an entire floor while Beyonce had her scheduled c-section. The hospital could have said no. But a lot of money was paid and well, hospitals do need money, and so it was allowed.

And yes, scheduled cesarean. Maybe she had a preexisting condition that made a c-section inevitable. But maybe it was because of her celebrity status that her birth had to be planned in order for them to be able to rent out an entire floor at Lenox Hill. That just makes me sad. It's a bad example for moms. And I'm upset for the families and moms who were birthing there that were very disrupted as a result of all of this. Parents who were denied seeing their newborns.

I love being black. I do. I thank God for all of my cultural idiosyncrasies and inherent Africanisms. I’m proud of who I am and the people I come from. It’s an honor to be born into a race of folks whose creativity and intellect and power helped shape the world as we know it.

But that being said, I can’t hop on this bandwagon that homebirth brings black women closer to our African heritage. I’ll immerse myself in a native language, I’ll shell out a few grand to fly to the mother continent and trace my Guinean roots. Heck, I’ve already dedicated thousands of dollars and thousands more hours studying our history for a master’s degree in African-American studies.

But if and when I ever find myself pregnant again, I’ll have my baby in a hospital, thank you very much. If something goes haywire — Lord forbid — I want all the bells and whistles of modern science by my side to save me or my child.