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?

Okay, so for the past few days, I've been getting educated by Alice and Eden on the end of the third trimester and getting labor started naturally via CafeMom Studio's Mom-Ed: Childbirth videos. It's been super helpful, super interesting stuff, but I've gotta say -- today's video takes the cake. The ladies talk about what happens once labor starts. And it's so not what I thought. Check out the video, then let's discuss.

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.

On December 11, 2011, tiny 5 foot 4 inch, Erin Kellam, gave birth to a 11 pound 11 ounce baby boy at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. That's a whole lot of 11s. And a whole lot of baby. Like an early Christmas miracle, Kellam had this baby vaginally. Gasp! How did she do it? How could a 128 pound woman (before pregnancy) be able to have a child that big? That's almost double the size of your average baby.

Perhaps it's just one of the great mysteries of the world. Something record-breaking. So profound it belongs in Ripley's Believe It or Not. Or maybe ...

Like most aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, the experience of one's water breaking is sadly misrepresented in TV and movies and never in my life had I witnessed the actual breakage of a pregnant woman's water (probably because it's actually fairly rare). For this reason, I had absolutely no idea that when my own water broke, a natural-disaster-sized frenzy of pure comedy would ensue.

At the finale of my pregnancy with my youngest son, my water broke -- and I mean BROKE like an overwhelmed levee breaks -- and I had no idea what was coming (as in waters and seas and rivers frickin' galore). For this reason, I am about to share the details and tell you the truth about when a woman's water full-on breaks so you can prepare yourself -- and get your flood insurance lined up; just kidding!!! sort of ... -- in case you end up one of the lucky ones.

For every amazing, transcendent, love-filled story of home birth, there almost inevitably seems to be at least one horror story. There are tales of being transported screaming to the hospital, or worse still -- mothers losing babies, babies losing mothers. Margarita Sheikh is one mother in Oregon who will always regret her decision to have her baby at home with two unlicensed midwives.

Her baby boy died and that would be heartbreaking enough. But the worst part is that she screamed and screamed for her midwives to take her to the hospital after laboring for eight days alone without her husband (he was stuck in India with visa issues), and no one took her.

Isn't the whole point of home birth that someone will be listening more to the mom? At home, aren't you supposed to be less of a cog in the wheel? Perhaps if she had been transported, her baby would be alive today.