"We feel quite strongly that we need to keep providing it so there's a choice for parents,'' Dunedin Home Birth Association educator and midwife Margaret Gardener said.
The association is one of a raft of organisations about to lose funding from the Southern District Health Board, which is consolidating its parenting and pregnancy education contracts with a sole provider, Plunket.
The association promotes "physiological birth'', which means giving birth naturally.
But it also seeks to inform parents to allow them to make good choices if they do need intervention.
Up to 10% of Dunedin births are home births, but the association's "positive birthing'' classes are for all parents hoping to have an unassisted birth.
Expectant mother Julie McGrory said she had had two emergency Caesarean sections and hoped to have a natural birth this time.
About 40 couples take the association's course each year, which are free at present.
From April, they will cost up to $200, but those without the means to pay could receive them free under a grants system.
Ms Gardener hoped the new fee structure did not affect numbers too much. A natural birth was better for the health of both the mother and the child, and was cost effective for the health system.
The benefit of losing the $6000 annual contract was gaining more independence for the programme.
It meant being less prescriptive, with a greater emphasis on informed choice for parents.
Figures released to the Otago Daily Times show the health board's rate of Caesarean section rose last year.
It was 31.7% in 2014-15, compared with 30.2% in 2013-14.
The spontaneous vaginal birth rate dropped from 58.3% in 2013-14 to 56.9%.
