Before I start rambling on about anything else, I want to say thank you to everyone who has either e-mailed me privately or left a comment, to show their support, in response to my “Birth” post. Believe me, it wasn’t easy being so damn honest about what I am going through, emotionally, in this second pregnancy. I really, really, really want for my baby, my husband, and myself to experience a beautiful and safe birth; I also want to respond to the many words of wisdom (including book recommendations) that have been made. I’ll save that for another post.
This post? Well, it’s basically just me touching base to let you all know that I am hear, checking e-mail every couple of days, and staying busy as anything trying to get my ducks in a row for our baby boy, due in just 10 1/2 weeks. Can you tell I’m counting down? :-)
Over the last 7 days, I’ve had a routine visit with my now former midwifery practice, who offered me a great deal of encouragement and well wishes for my coming home or birth center birth. I also traveled about 40 minutes (and a bit more because I get lost whenever I have to travel somewhere else in the D.C. metro maze) for a second routine visit with my new midwifery practice. For the most part, I am feeling like the universe is answering my prayers . . . I learned on Thursday that my insurance will fully cover a homebirth, which I had thought quite impossible just 4 weeks ago. My husband, who is still digesting information and reading through our thick birth preparation folder (a requirement of our new practice), even seems to be warming to the idea of a possible homebirth. For those who may feel concerned for my delivering at home, I have to share this with you: I live 1.7 miles from an excellent hospital with one of the best neonatology units around, whereas, in comparison, the birth center is about 3 to 4 miles from a hospital whose reputation I am unfamiliar with. My home, should I deliver here, will also have the same medical equipment as the birth center, and I will be attended by two midwives (which is how much of the rest of the world, including much of Europe, approaches labor and delivery). I will also say this: as a healthy pregnant woman with a healthy baby and no (known) complications, I feel that a homebirth (and a birth center birth) are safer options than a hospital birth (let me emphasize: for me). That said, I know of many women who have had beautiful, unmedicated hospital births; in my experience, that is not what happened for me the first time; it seems that with the advances in technology, hospital nurses and doctors are far more comfortable with pushing a laboring mother to do birth their way . . . in my experience, time was of the essence, and rooms fill up . . . laboring my child was a matter of making room for another laboring mother. It is not my desire to condemn or judge another woman’s choice for where to birth; I am simply sharing what I feel is best (and safest) for me. I believe all women are entitled to the right to choose where to birth.
Last, and somewhat related, I have also been super busy this week caring for Annabelle as my husband has successfully researched and purchased a new car that will accommodate our growing family. He bid farewell to his firebird, :-( and has opted for a Toyota Camry Hybrid. Right now, he is getting used to a quiet engine that does not rev up or even change gears . . . but overall, he’s pretty happy with his new set of wheels.
And while all of this has been going on, I suspect that Annabelle has had hand, foot, and mouth virus; she fought off an awful fever between Wednesday evening and Saturday morning . . . since we are still nursing, though with less frequency, she wanted to full access to the “nummies” as she calls them. Oh my do my boobies hurt! I’m glad she’s feeling better, because I was having lots of Braxton Hicks after nursing her so much.
Well, I’ve got to go now and help out with my little one . . . she’s gotten a lot of daddy attention since Saturday because I’ve been exhausted recovering from this week . . . I have to much more reading, planning, and interviewing (of birth attendants) to do, not to mention I still don’t have a dresser for this little guy. I’ll be back soon as I can though.
Happy Sunday,
Jessica
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I was just kidding about the cleaning up, but I guess it was a legitimate question.
I for one don’t believe that hospitals are better than homes or that they’re more sterile (they have many vectors of infection and “sterile” of course isn’t best… but that’s for another post).
It sounds like you have some great options for your second birth. We had a homebirth with our second and the midwives and doula cleaned up, helped me get a shower, and tucked us into bed before they left. It was wonderful. :)
If you hire a doula it should be part of their responsibility to clean up, make sure you are in bed comfortable and fed (mine cooked a delicious meal for my husband and me) and that the baby is breastfeeding well. My midwife and doula did not leave our apartment until over three hours after the birth, and everything was tidied, the birthing tub was emptied, dismantled, and placed back in the box it came in, we were well tended to before they went home. It was wonderful!
abbie, seriously? I’m cracking up over here. Who will clean up the mess? I’ll have to add that one to my question sheet for the midwives, though I suspect it will include my husband, the attendants, and likely, my mamma.
This will probably make you laugh, but every time I read or hear about homebirth, my first question is always: Who will clean up the mess? I certainly wouldn’t want to give birth and then clean up! Haha :)
Hope Annabelle feels better soon, and congrats on the hybrid!
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