Homebirth and 13 week update

Many of you may know by now that Thad and I are planning for a homebirth. I thought it would be appropriate to explain our reasoning for this and why we believe that giving birth in our own home is what is right for us. Before I begin, I want to include that I am not against hospital birth and neither is our midwife. I believe that many people have had wonderful experiences in the hospital. We know that unexpected complications could arise at any time and our certified nurse midwife knows how to handle those situations. If it is something beyond her reach she has no problem with transferring us to a hospital and sticking through the entire thing so we feel as comfortable as possible.

Many people in our country think of homebirth as unsafe, generally because we are uneducated about it and don’t know what other options are available. We personally feel more comfortable in our own home where I can relax. I am able to labor in whatever position I need to do with out having to worry about who is going to walk in the room next. I will be able to sleep in my own bed afterwards next to my husband. I can eat or drink whatever I want and whenever I want because it is immediately available. It will also be less likely for me to pick up an infection. A mother is used to the bacteria in her own environment and has built up immunities to it.

Giving birth is a very normal and natural condition. For me, I feel that in a hospital we are treated as more of a medical patient. In the hospital a baby being born is a daily occurrence and treated like it is a medical condition. Essentially the mother is the only one who really knows what her body needs. It is also less likely to have unnecessary intervention with a midwife attended homebirth. There are many people I have talked to that feel they were unhappy with the way things progressed in a hospital setting. For instance, the doctor does not feel like the labor is progressing and they do not want to be there all night so they call the shots and bring the patient in for a c-section when maybe the baby was just not ready to come out yet.(In some situations; not them all.) For women having their first birth in a hospital the c-section rate is now up to 40%! For women having their first birth at home the c-section rate is at 1%. Crazy! Wow, it seems like most of the time a c-section is pretty unnecessary, and opens the door for more complications. I do understand that for some people there is no choice and that is the way it goes, but I do know that I would want to stay away from that as much as possible.

Here is a bit of information I found interesting while reading a fellow bloggers thoughts...
"At homebirths, babies are usually immediately placed on the mom’s stomach or breast, providing security, warmth and immediate bonding between mom and baby. This contact provides security for both mom and baby. In the rare case when the baby has difficulty breathing on its own, midwives are fully trained in infant CPR. Usually, putting the baby right to the breast and having mom talk to her baby will encourage it to take those first breaths.
Putting the baby immediately to the breast helps reduce any bleeding the mom may have. The sucking action stimulates the uterus and causes it to contract. This closes off blood vessels and reduces bleeding."-Amy.

I really enjoy our midwife. She comes to our house for my prenatal visits and spends over an hour with us each time. I feel the more time spent with us the more we get to know each other and will feel more comfortable with each other on the day of. She is a certified nurse midwife who was a nurse first and then went to midwifery school. She has 8 children of her own and 6 of them were born at home. She has also attended over 350 homebirths and hospital births in the Quad cities area. After meeting with her for the first time we felt very comfortable with her and realized that this is exactly what we want to do. She has a website for anyone who wants to look more into it. It provides questions and answers, service information, and other resources to look at. I found it to be very helpful. Her website is http://www.homesweethomemidwifery.net/.

We are still thinking about hiring a doula to assist in the laboring. I will attend a series of birth classes taught by a trained Bradley Method doula in our area and from there we will decide if we want to have her attend our birth as well. She will teach us plenty of positions that will help the labor progress without using pitocin. If she were to attend our birth she would also provide us with specific message that can help ease pain and progress labor as well. I don't have much information about doula services yet, we are learning as we go. If anyone has had a similar experience and has any advice for me, let me know I would love to hear about your experience.

And here is an update...I am 13 weeks and 5 days along...or 96 days along...or you could say I have 26 wks and 2 days to go...or 184 days to go. hehe, kinda fun :) The fetus is said to be about the size of a peach right now. I have still been feeling pretty good, and am now entering into my second trimester! Crazy! It feels like this has all just started, but I am now a third of the way done! So exciting!...but I am still tired all the time. Hopefully that will start to get better as I progress into the second trimester. I have really started to have an opinion about what foods I want to eat and which ones I CAN NOT STAND! I kind of feel like a kid, with certain foods (depends on the day), I will start to chew and have to spit it right back out or I feel like I may get sick. Eww! But for the most part I am feeling pretty good. Our next prenatal appointment is April 2nd. Here is my 13 weeks and 5 days belly picture...