There are a number of comments on here now supporting the idea that homebirth is better and safer than a hospital one. I think a number of studies concur. The reason is that basically being pregnant is not an illness. Given birth is not an illness. These are just normal conditions for a human being. As such pregnant woman should not be in hospital unless something is wrong. In the vast majority of cases nothing goes wrong. It could be argued that, considering that hospital births are more expensive that homebirths, healthy pregnant women should not be using up scarce NHS resources by unnecessarily clogging up the wards. By that recent report, London Hospitals are pretty poor all round for Maternity anyhow. Stay at home, have your own food, community midwives, have your own stuff around you, and your bloke (or birth partner, if you like) can stay with you the whole time. If there is a problem - Kings is a short ride over the hill.