Midwives and Homebirth

Our Baby Lydia entered the world at home on Wednesday, February 24 at 8:25pm, weighing 8lbs, 2oz, and 20 inches long. 
Waterbirth is an amazing experience. Homebirth is amazing as well. Leaps and bounds better than hospitals, in my opinion. I've learned a lot and am really glad for this experience. I have had a c-section with Archie and a hospital VBAC with Lawrence. The water homebirth topped them all as far as birth experiences go.

I have photos in the next post going out tomorrow.  Fear not, all you squeamish folk (well, mostly my DAD!)...I have edited them to remove anything oogy as well as removed all views of lady parts. Consequently, there weren't very many pictures I would want to be posted in a public forum. So that's all ya get!

We came to the conclusion that we were interested in homebirth initially because the hospitals weren't allowing anyone under the age of 14 in the hospital as a visitor. Because of Swine Flu.  Gimme a break.  I talked to my doc to see if we could get a 'pass' since Archie's homeschooled and was mostly out of the germ pool, but he said there wasn't anything he could do.  Since the hospital is a business first and foremost (contrary to popular belief that they are there to help people), we made the choice not to patronize that business if we didn't have to. Not to mention, I am still a bit peeved at the hospital's pediatrician who, at Lawrence's birth, walked in, thumped him on the stomach, pronounced him healthy, walked out the door about a minute later and charged my insurance $400 for the privelege. I certainly wish I could make $400 for a minute's worth of 'work'!

My thought process was that Archie got to see his little brother being born, and I wanted him to be able to be there for his sister's birth as well. Plus, he didn't want to miss it either. I talked about it with my doc (one of the only ones in the area who is openly supportive of homebirth) and he said it would be a viable choice, if that's the direction in which we wanted to go.  I decided to wait until after an ultrasound to rule out Placenta Previa (the reason for the C-section with Archie).  After the ultrasound looked good, we got the all clear, and it was determined we might be having a girl, we decided to look into a midwife.

I really, really wanted to have a waterbirth.  Being in the tub really helped manage pain when I was labouring with Lawrence.  The only problem was that the hospital wanted me out of the tub periodically for checking this or that.  So it was in and out.  Which was very hard to do during contractions.  Also, I think all the in and out was disturbing my labour progress, made it hard to concentrate on getting through the contractions, and made things more difficult.  But I liked the relief that the water brought.  So I felt really hell-bent on the waterbirth--the undisturbed waterbirth.

The law regarding practicing midwives here is...well...sort of unclear.  There is a difference between a Certified Professional Midwife and Certified Nurse Midwife, who can prescribe, diagnose and so forth.  What they CAN do, what they CAN'T do, and all that is kind of a sticky topic right now.  So I had to penetrate the midwife underground to get some names. After making the right connections, I thought I had one picked out. Over Thanksgiving, while visiting our folks in Alabama, I began having second thoughts about her. I had a dream which very clearly told me to keep looking. So I did. Right around Christmastime, I finally got in touch with Marlene. I knew she was the one as soon as she sent me her info. I was looking for someone with similar religious beliefs as mine, a spiritual person, who brought her faith into her work. Because giving birth is quite frankly, a religious experience for me, so that aspect was important.

The only problem was that she lives two hours away. Which would be fine under normal circumstances because my kids like to take their time entering the world. But our due date was February.  If there was a snowstorm, Cincinnati being the hilly city it is, the roads might not be clear. So there was a slight possibility that she might not be able to get here. Fortunately, she works with various people in the Cincinnati area, so even if she might not be able to get here, chances were that an assistant would. We decided to take our chances. If it was meant to be for her to get here, she would.

The great thing about seeing her was that she came to my house to do all the prenatals.  Which worked out beautifully for me because toting Lawrence anywhere while I was hugely pregnant was exhausting!  She even came over the weekends, if she happened to be in Cincinnati.  She showed Phillip how to feel on my abdomen for the baby's head (versus the baby's behind), and let him listen to the baby's heart every time.  The care and concern she gave not only me but our family was superb.  I think the health care should go back to doctors who make housecalls!  That was super convenient!

In the event that we had to do everything unassisted because of weather or whatever, she gave a class with a few other couples on unassisted childbirth.  It was quite informative, waaaay better than those classes they give at the hospital.  If people were more informed of what was normal in childbirth, they wouldn't worry so much about stuff going wrong or even needing to be in a hospital setting for a normal birth.  A lot of the stuff the doctors don't tell you because 'they'll be taking care of all that anyway', I learned. 

It was getting toward 'go' time and I still didn't have a birthing pool.  Marlene had someone giving birth really close to my due date, so she had Marlene's pool.  Her other one was leaking.  I was getting a bit nervous about not getting a pool.  I had almost resigned myself to using our bathtub (we have an old house with a large tub) when she called with the name of someone who had one I could borrow!  Happy Day! 

I got it and as it turned out, had a couple of more weeks to wait anyway.  We prepared by moving the furniture in my bedroom to be able to accomodate the pool, ran the hose up the laundry chute from the basement into our room as well as the air hose to blow up the pool.  Laundry chutes are good for lots of things! 

We did a test run to blow up the pool.  It took a long time to blow up.  We decided to leave it blown up in the room for the duration of pregnancy to save time when labour started. 

Our midwife came over for the final prenatal appointment and brought a couple of ladies she liked to assist her so I could meet them and pick out who I wanted to come with her.

At the end of this pregnancy, I was exhausted, felt like a slug, couldn't play with the kids, couldn't sit, couldn't stand, couldn't lay down...I was super crabby and I'm sure my family was ready for this to be over already.  And it was...February 24.

More to follow.