Many people may have never thought about giving birth in their home or any home. This isn’t the case for midwife Melanie Lennon. 

Lennon, who has been in the business of births since she was a midwife student in 2011, has modified her home over the past 11 years to be welcoming, practical and ready for countless births.

“Home birth is really the greatest home improvement you can ever do,” Lennon said.

Lennon’s home radiates a comfort that may very well only be achieved through this unique form of home improvement, or it could be the carefully considered modifications needed to run a midwife practice from home. 

Lennon’s home is located just outside of Powell and takes full advantage of the serene environment of rural Wyoming, complete with a view of Heart Mountain. Lennon’s large wood-paneled home has a separate entrance for expecting parents and their families, a small kitchen area and a lending library that were built a few years after Lennon had begun her practice to give families increased privacy.

“We had it [the room] built in such a way that we can shut it all down, like all of the windows, [so it] can be private and closed up,” Lennon said.

The meeting room leads into a birthing area with an antique brass bed frame and a 55-year-old handmade bassinet built when Lennon’s brother was born. She believes there is value in decorating with functional antiques from an era when births were viewed differently than they are today.

“I use a lot of furnishings of the era when home birth was the norm,” Lennon said.

The birthing room’s connected bathroom once again showcases the careful considerations Lennon has put into the design of the home. The bathroom is designed with water birth in mind, a method of birthing that reduces pressure on the mother. During Lennon’s time as a student, she had a large jacuzzi-style tub installed specifically for water births. While Lennon is happy with the tub and says it gets plenty of use, she admits that if she had to redesign the room she would buy a tub that does not have jets. Out of roughly 100 births in the bathtub, only one woman used the tub’s jets. 

Lennon just had a wall removed between the living room and the kitchen. The rooms now flow into each other, making it ideal for family-style gatherings.  Shortly after the remodel, she hosted a day-long birthing clinic for expectant parents wanting to learn about home births. 

“I had a lot of comments from people. Even people that had maybe been to a retreat before that were like, ‘I loved having it in your home,” she said. “And my clients get awfully close to my heart. They start to feel like family so why not invite family in, right?”

Lennon said her entire house is designed around her goal of helping women have their babies in a home rather than hospital setting, but anyone can benefit by the kind of remodeling she has done to her house. 

“All homes really do benefit from home birth. It’s really the greatest home improvement you can ever do,” she said. “Just bringing that sweet reverent activity and [going] back to the old traditions of family around.”