Comedian Jim Gaffigan lightheartedly makes jest of the reactions people have had upon learning of his wife's five home births. Gaffigan mocks, "Oh you had your baby at home? We were gonna do that, but we wanted our baby to live." Gaffigan adds that there was a midwife at their home births because "they believe in witchcraft!" These humorous retorts are not so far from many people' s impressions of out of hospital births.
The truth is that most laboring women in the U.S. choose hospital births, not because they have a high risk or complicated pregnancy, but rather because hospital birth is what they are familiar and comfortable with. The idea of a home birth brings to mind an archaic necessity predating medial intervention.
We signed up to take a class to learn "The Bradley Method" of Husband-Coached Natural Childbirth, and gained a wealth of information from the course. Most of all, our fears regarding birth began to be dispelled and both of us gained an immense trust in my body's natural ability to birth our child. This much needed confidence made all the difference in the end game when it was truly necessary to place mind over matter.
Pregnancy was a beautiful state of being in which I ate healthy, exercised often, and read everything I could get my hands on to prepare for childbirth. This was certainly not the gallons of ice cream scenario I had prepared for from childhood. I knew that all of these positive measures throughout the nine months of pregnancy were making a difference in how healthy and ready I would be to labor my baby naturally. The whole time I compared it to the two marathons I had run, in which even after my legs felt that they had given up, my will to make it to the finish line somehow carried the rest of my body through.
As my husband and I continued to go to appointments at my regular GYN for care, we became more and more frustrated with the fear factor and the level of interventions they were already preparing us for. All signs indicated a normal and healthy pregnancy (aside from Group B Strep - which I got rid of naturally). Even so, each time I went to an appointment, I left feeling a little more defeated, as if it was countering the strength I had been gaining in my ability to labor naturally.
At that point we decided to begin looking to switch care to a midwife, despite doctor's warnings. I have never felt comfortable in hospitals and knew from my marathon experience that if I was going to accomplish something of this magnitude, I had to be comfortable.
We were ecstatic to find our midwife, who came highly recommended and had been a nurse as well as being a Certified Professional Midwife. She had over thirty years experience and fit perfectly into the natural mentality of The Bradley Method. Our midwife attends both home births and births at her birth center, which I opted for with my first baby. The birth center is not far from being in the comfort of your own home however. The rooms are furnished as a quaint bed and breakfast style home, with comfy beds to labor in (not hospital beds), as well as the option of walking around (indoors or out), using a birthing ball, birthing stool, or having a water birth. I wore my own comfy clothing and was able to eat and drink throughout the entire labor. The room was peaceful and darkened with a scented candle lit that gave me a sense of relaxation that I desperately needed. Our midwife never left my side, often rubbing my back and speaking softly to my husband and I. This allowed me to retreat peacefully within myself during the painful labor process.
Our son's birth was not without complication however, as his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. This presented a challenge for our midwife, but her experience and skills equipped her to quickly evacuate our son, free his chord, and help him to begin breathing. A second challenge then faced her as the umbilical chord, which was extremely weak snapped, leaving my placenta inside of me and unattached. Using a combination of gravity, herbal tinctures, prayer, and supporting an already exhausted mother to push some more, she was successful at removing the placenta safely as well!
Because of my comfort level in my birthing environment, I had a super fast first labor (8 hours total from first contraction). Hospital labors are often prolonged because of the mother's discomfort and the constant internal assessments. Mothers report that they do not feel relaxed, peaceful, or in charge of their own labor. These were all elements we desperately wanted to avoid considering the already great magnitude of birthing a child. Finally, my husband and I were able to head home with our new bundle of joy only a few hours after his birth. This allowed us to relax in our own home, shower, and bed, and to have home cooked meals prepared for us by family as they swooned over the new addition to the family tree!
If you have any interest at all in learning more about midwifery and out of hospital birth (even just for the sake of gaining knowledge on the subject), I highly recommend watching The Business of Being Born and reading an incredible book called Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, written by a midwife about her journey throughout her practice.
The fact is that we are very blessed to have the advanced medical technology that we do in this century and in this country. Hospitals and medical interventions serve a great purpose, and the risk of being too far away from either during a moment such as labor is too much for some mothers to even consider.
There is of course always risk involved with birth and even the best medical interventions cannot in all cases prevent further complications or save the mother or child. With this knowledge, one also doesn't want to throw caution to the wind and make careless choices based on the inability to possess total control. Parents must weigh the options and the risks and make an educated decision that they are both comfortable with. We did just that, and decided that for us, the risk of unnecessary intervention was greater in the hospital.
As my husband and I went through the months of my first pregnancy, we began to radically change our lifestyles. We embraced a more natural and organic approach to diet and medicine that has had tremendous effects on our health and kept us out of the doctor's office. As we continued down this path, we also desired to pursue the most natural gestation and birth for our baby. We knew that we wanted a natural birth, with as little medical intervention as possible and pain medication as only an absolute last resort. Thankfully it never came to that!
Pregnancy was a beautiful state of being in which I ate healthy, exercised often, and read everything I could get my hands on to prepare for childbirth. This was certainly not the gallons of ice cream scenario I had prepared for from childhood. I knew that all of these positive measures throughout the nine months of pregnancy were making a difference in how healthy and ready I would be to labor my baby naturally. The whole time I compared it to the two marathons I had run, in which even after my legs felt that they had given up, my will to make it to the finish line somehow carried the rest of my body through.
As my husband and I continued to go to appointments at my regular GYN for care, we became more and more frustrated with the fear factor and the level of interventions they were already preparing us for. All signs indicated a normal and healthy pregnancy (aside from Group B Strep - which I got rid of naturally). Even so, each time I went to an appointment, I left feeling a little more defeated, as if it was countering the strength I had been gaining in my ability to labor naturally.
At that point we decided to begin looking to switch care to a midwife, despite doctor's warnings. I have never felt comfortable in hospitals and knew from my marathon experience that if I was going to accomplish something of this magnitude, I had to be comfortable.
We were ecstatic to find our midwife, who came highly recommended and had been a nurse as well as being a Certified Professional Midwife. She had over thirty years experience and fit perfectly into the natural mentality of The Bradley Method. Our midwife attends both home births and births at her birth center, which I opted for with my first baby. The birth center is not far from being in the comfort of your own home however. The rooms are furnished as a quaint bed and breakfast style home, with comfy beds to labor in (not hospital beds), as well as the option of walking around (indoors or out), using a birthing ball, birthing stool, or having a water birth. I wore my own comfy clothing and was able to eat and drink throughout the entire labor. The room was peaceful and darkened with a scented candle lit that gave me a sense of relaxation that I desperately needed. Our midwife never left my side, often rubbing my back and speaking softly to my husband and I. This allowed me to retreat peacefully within myself during the painful labor process.
Our son's birth was not without complication however, as his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. This presented a challenge for our midwife, but her experience and skills equipped her to quickly evacuate our son, free his chord, and help him to begin breathing. A second challenge then faced her as the umbilical chord, which was extremely weak snapped, leaving my placenta inside of me and unattached. Using a combination of gravity, herbal tinctures, prayer, and supporting an already exhausted mother to push some more, she was successful at removing the placenta safely as well!
Because of my comfort level in my birthing environment, I had a super fast first labor (8 hours total from first contraction). Hospital labors are often prolonged because of the mother's discomfort and the constant internal assessments. Mothers report that they do not feel relaxed, peaceful, or in charge of their own labor. These were all elements we desperately wanted to avoid considering the already great magnitude of birthing a child. Finally, my husband and I were able to head home with our new bundle of joy only a few hours after his birth. This allowed us to relax in our own home, shower, and bed, and to have home cooked meals prepared for us by family as they swooned over the new addition to the family tree!
If you have any interest at all in learning more about midwifery and out of hospital birth (even just for the sake of gaining knowledge on the subject), I highly recommend watching The Business of Being Born and reading an incredible book called Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, written by a midwife about her journey throughout her practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment