Tag Archives: Home Birth

Planning a Water Birth

Today’s guest post is from Maria, one of my readers. I’m always happy when someone enjoys my blog and even happier when I read their work and find I enjoy theirs too! This topics is near and dear to me because, while I never said I was “planning” a water birth, I knew I wanted it as an option and now that I’ve had one, I’ll never go back!

Water births are constantly gaining popularity and it’s no surprise why; they are known to reduce pain and stress for the mother and to give the baby a relaxing entry into the world. The warm water is supposed to be a similar environment to the amniotic sac so that when the baby is delivered they don’t feel the transition to be too stressful.

The Opinion of Others!

When you’re planning for a water birth, you may notice people trying to put you off the idea or scoffing at it. This is most likely because during a water birth you cannot have an epidural or anaesthetic. However, don’t let others influence your decision. If you have decided you wish to experience a pain-relief free labour then a water birth could be perfect for you as it is known to naturally reduce pain. It’s also known to reduce the chance of tearing the perineum therefore lessening the chances of the mother needing an episiotomy. If you do decide to have a water birth, remember you can always change your mind and leave the pool if you decide you want an epidural.

Where To Do It?

When you’ve made your decision that you want a water birth, perhaps you’ve been considering it since your first pregnancy symptoms, the first thing to do is to decide where you wish to give birth. If it’s at hospital, you need to speak to them to make sure they support water birth, will have a birthing pool available or whether they will let you bring your own birthing pool into the hospital. The hospital may charge an extra fee for use of the birthing pool so look around to see if you can purchase your own for cheaper. The alternative is to give birth at home. For this you will need to find a midwife who is experienced in home water births and you’ll need to buy your own pool.

Secondly you’ll need to find an obstetrician or midwife who is happy with your decision. Some may not feel comfortable with your decision to water birth so make sure in advance you will not face any pressure to change your mind unless there is a medical emergency.

Keeping an Open Mind

Throughout the pregnancy and labor you will need to keep an open mind about the birth. Sometimes it will not be safe to have a water birth and you will be recommended against it. As long as there are medical reasons for you not to water birth you should listen to your midwife or obstetrician and be ready to change your plans. It is not recommended that you water birth if you: have had any bleeding in late pregnancy; your baby is in distress; you’re going into labor early; you have herpes or other health problems such as diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease; you have high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia; your labor was induced; you’re having multiple births, your baby is in the breech position or your baby is very small.

Lastly, you should try to labor in the water else you may not have time to get into the pool before your baby comes. It is advisable not to get into the water too soon otherwise the warm water may stop your contractions in early labor. Before you go into labor you will want to find a birthing tub, a midwife or obstetrician who is willing to assist with your water birth and a fetoscope.

Maria loves writing and researching about pregnancy and helping other people to learn about the different options they have. She is a keen blogger and loves hearing stories about everyone’s birth experiences.

Rachel’s Birth Story

Today’s guest post is from Rachel at The Minimalist Mom. As you likely know from my past posts, Rachel has helped to inspire me to minimalize my possessions and life. Today I am happy to share her wonderful (and minimalist) home birth story.

Rachel and Henry

Rachel’s Birth Story: An Unlikely Home Birther

If you had asked friends of mine, or family, if they ever thought I would have a home birth, the resounding answer would have been no. Before getting pregnant I was a fairly mainstream follower of medicalized health care. I had been an athlete for many years and managed overuse injuries with a slew of medications and some half hearted physiotherapy. Once I retired from sport I had surgery on my elbow and gladly filled, and consumed, the Tyelenol 3 with Codeine pills prescribed for pain.

Before getting pregnant I watched the documentary The Business of Being Born. It was fascinating. And home birth looked quite interesting but I still didn’t think it was for me.

When I got pregnant I chose to visit a midwife, an option available to women in British Columbia, Canada under federally funded health care services. I chose to see midwives over an OBGYN simply because I heard the appointments were longer and more relaxed. Later I also learned that they did home visits for the first two weeks post-partum. Bonus!

I didn’t inititally intend to have a home birth. I did hire a Doula for labor assistance but I registered at a large hospital thinking that that was where my son would be born.

Like most women pregnant for the first time I read about pregnancy and labor voraciously. I read stories in books and online. I started to notice a common theme to the hospital stories, they were full of markers of dilation, shift changes for nurses and a lot of drugs. I knew I wanted to avoid getting an epidural because the thought of a needle going into my back made me nauseous.

I also read some painful descriptions of riding in a car while in labor. My husband and I lived in an urban centre at the time and we walked every where. Getting in a car while in labor sounded terrible. I started to read more home birth stories because most of the hospital stories were scaring me.

Another factor that began to deeply change my thoughts on laboring in a hospital was that we were already spending a lot of time in hospitals. Both of my in-laws had been very ill we had spent a lot of time driving to hospitals and visiting. The thought of going to a hospital to give birth started to seem very wrong. I associated hospitals with serious illness and cancer, not bringing new life into this world.

After a lot of soul searching I brought up having a home brith with my husband. His first reaction was, won’t it be loud and messy? I told him I didn’t think so. He also asked me why I wouldn’t want to be in a hospital setting seeing as I had never had a baby before and didn’t know how hard labor would be. As a former athlete I knew that I had good focus and pain management techniques. Also, my instincts were telling me I would be much more comfortable laboring at home.

After some discussions with my Doula and midwife we decided to plan for a home birth. With our healthcare system you can transfer to a hospital at any time so there are no financial repercussions (or pressures) if you end up having a hospital birth.

We told almost no one about our plan. My sister knew and I had told a few work colleagues. I knew most of my family would have negative opinions about my choice so I decided to keep it to myself.

At 38 weeks and 2 days my water broke. Unexpected for sure. I had been reminded time and time again that first baby’s come late. I was still working at the time and 48 hours before my water broke I had been in another country (Seattle – I am from Vancouver, Canada).

In typical low-key Westcoast fashion I went into work to finish a few things. My coworkers were slightly horrified that I had come in after my water had broken. But I wasn’t having any contractions and knew it might be a while. Also, I wanted to officially put my out-of-office reply on – no more work for me!

We did end up going to the hospital because I had tested positive for Strep B. I got a bag of antibiotics, a few more to take home so the midwives could come and adminster them later, and a small vial of a tincturn to help me go into labour.

On the way home we picked up our home birth kit, got labor snacks and had lunch at Whole Foods and I took my first labor cocktail (tincturn, castor oil, juice, peanut butter). I mixed the cocktail right in the Whole Foods cafe and downed it.

The home birth went off mostly without a hitch. My midwives visited me twice to administer IV antibiotics and see how I was progressing. I labored in the dark in my home doing a lot of swaying and listening to an awesome playlist of Ray La Montagne and the Weepies. My doula arrived and put me through a mini bootcamp of lunges with one leg on a stool. My husband rubbed my back and was generally amazing.

Because of my GBS+ diagnosis and ruptured membranes my care providers had wanted to avoid internal exams to reduce risk of infection. My midwives arrived at my home at 5am to adminster another does of antibiotics and they gave me my first internal exam. 10 cms. I literally pumped my fist in excitment. After my IV I went to labor on the toilet and started to have pushing contractions. My team got me up onto my bed and a few minutes later my son arrived.

It was amazing.

While I was not the most likely person to choose home birth I am now a big proponent of it for women that want the option and are good candidates. It can be safe and it can be a very healthy experience for mother and child.

In the last two years I’ve made some remarkable changes to my lifestyle, reducing possessions and debt and gaining more time and space in my life. It’s been wonderful. When I think about what gave me the confidence to make these changes I think about making that decision to have a home birth. It wasn’t easy to do something I knew family and friends wouldn’t agree with. It wasn’t easy but it was so empowering. Making such a big decision, and having it be successful, has given me more confidence in my body and my instincts.

I know home birth isn’t for every woman not only because medical complications but because many women will feel more comfortable in a hospital than their home. But I wish the option, the choice, was there for every woman.

Rachel Jonat writes about living a rich life with less stuff at The Minimalist Mom.

K La’s Birth Story

Today’s post is from K La, a long time reader and commenter of my blog. I’m so happy to be able to both share a post from her and learn a little more about her through her birth story. Read her full bio at the end of this post. This birth story brought me to tears at 39 weeks and I hope that Twig’s birth will be exactly like her daughter’s birth was.

This is my birthing tub, otherwise known as an AquaDoula. My midwife lent it to me in preparation for the planned home-birth of my first child. My husband and I  decided against having an ultrasound, so we didn’t know the sex of our baby. My pregnancy was text-book perfect, so we were excellent candidates for a homebirth.

I was due on 09/09/09. That day came and went with no baby. On 09/16/09, I went to my midwife for another appointment. By this time  I had had two “false labors”  and had been having Braxton-Hick contractions for two weeks. At my appointment, I was 100% effaced (a new development) but still only 2cm dilated (I had been 2cm dilated since 09/09/09).

The appointment went well. I went home,  having small, pathetic contractions and just a little cramping for the rest of the day.  Around 10:00 pm the contractions changed.  It was obvious to me that the contractions were not going away, that I would not be going to sleep that night, and that I was going to have the baby soon. I wanted to time the contractions, but I really didn’t know how. Was I supposed to start timing when my tummy got tight? When the pain started? Did I end when I could breathe or when my tummy felt smooshy again?

At 10:22pm I called the midwife and told her this was it. She asked me a few questions, told me to take a shower and keep her updated. DH started filling up the AquaDoula . He hooked the hose up to the washer, but the hose’s connection wasn’t tight enough so he had to unhook it and get a different hose. Once he got that hose hooked up he started filling up the tub but the hot water ran out way before the tub was filled up. I got in anyway, by now the contractions were very crampy and quite painful. Ben started heating water up on the stove, hauling it up the stairs and dumping it into the pool. He was still trying to time the contractions (Which were really easy to time now since the pain and tightness came at the same time and were very distinct. These contractions were obvious, there was no ignoring them) and do everything I asked him to do. Poor DH, he was running all over the place.

The hot water came back on and DH finished filling up the AquaDoula. With all the boiled water he had dumped in the pool was about 100 degrees. I got back in and could feel my muscles relaxing. The water was amazing. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a water birth, but I knew I wanted the option. Once I was in the water there was no question: I wanted a waterbirth. Still, between contractions I liked getting out and lying on the bed. If I had a contraction in the water, it was fine, if I had one on the bed, it was VERY painful. I walked a lot between the pool and the bed.  This was about the same time the midwives showed up. They checked me (on the bed) and I was at 6. They listened to the baby’s heart rate (great!) and checked the position of the head. They said it was a lot lower than it was at the appointment that afternoon. I was still moving around a lot and the midwife commented that I should stay in one position to conserve energy. I just couldn’t! I moved to the toilet but that didn’t help, so I decided to get back into the pool. Once again, as soon as I got in I relaxed. The midwife tried to guide my breathing and that helped a lot. I had somehow pictured that I would be silent during labor, but that was just not the case. At first I was quiet, concentrating on deep breathing and relaxing, but by the time I was at 6cm I could not keep quiet. This time in the pool I was able to find a position I liked. I was mostly on my knees (but in water, so I was relaxed) leaning over the edge.

It didn’t take long for me to have the urge to push with each contraction. This worried me, since I had planned to push as little as possible. My biggest fear was tearing, so I wanted to let my body do all the work. When I told the midwife I wanted to push she said to push a little and if it felt good, keep doing it. If it hurt, it meant my cervix was swelling and I needed to not push for a while. I did a few little pushes (still hesitantly) and it felt wonderful! It felt like I could push the contractions away. I started pushing more and the midwife said she wanted to check to see where I was. I was at 9cm! It took less than an hour to go from 6 to 9!

Sometime during all this someone had turned off the light. The hall light was still on, giving a very cave-like feeling to the room. They also put a flashlight inside the tub so they could see the water (and me, I assume, wouldn’t want to miss anything!) and make sure everything was fine. I loved it. I have always loved swimming in pools at night, with the pool lights on, glowing underwater and making the ripples reflect on the ceiling and walls. That’s exactly what it was like. No one talked except in a whisper when they needed something or asked a question. It was perfect. It was so much better than I had planned.

At this point the contractions really changed. I knew I was going through transition. Even in the warm water, this part hurt. A lot. I tried to ride the contractions, to use them, but there were a few times it felt like they would bury me. I tried to concentrate on the sounds my midwife was telling me to make, and I could do it most of the time, but a few times I couldn’t get my breathe or just felt too overwhelmed. I felt tired, but still optimistic.  I know what I was doing was hard, but I still knew I could do it. At one point, I asked myself  if I wanted to do this. Did I want to get in the car, drive to the hospital and get an epidural to take away the pain? The answer was no. I didn’t want to get out of the water, I couldn’t stand the thought of getting in a car, and even though it hurt, I knew I was safe. I was relaxed, focused, and surrounded by people I trusted.  Even during transition, I knew I had made the best possible choice for me and that not only could I do this, but this was the best way for me to do it.

I reached down and felt the head. It was so close! I was pushing hard with every contraction and trying to feel if I was making any progress. It felt like it was taking forever but it could have only been 3 or 4 contractions later when the head was right there. I grabbed DH’s hand and made him feel. It felt slick; the water sack had not yet broken.

Suddenly I felt the baby kick! Here I was, in full labor, minutes away from delivering, and my baby was kicking!  I was so surprised!

I remember realizing that the rest between contractions was getting longer. I felt that the head was coming more to the front. I knew I was getting close. During a rest periods I stayed down in the water with my eyes closed telling myself that this next push would make the head crown. I geared myself up for the contractions and when it came I pushed hard. There was a “pop” and I gasped. Not only was the contraction gone in an instant and I felt that I had fallen off of it, but I knew my water had broken!

The next contraction I could feel the baby’s head start to crown. I didn’t want to push it out, I was still afraid of tearing. There were a few contraction where I would push, but then the head would go back and I would have to start again. After a little while of this I felt like I should lay back. I did and was floating on my back in the water. I pushed hard, griping Melissa’s hand and I felt the ring of fire. It burned. It BURNED!. One more push (And it felt like a long and terrible push) and the head was out! I gasped and kept asking DH if he could see it, which was a ridiculous thing to ask since, what else would he be looking at? Besides, he was the one catching. He was RIGHT THERE.

I tried to catch my breath and wait for the next contraction. I was also still in shock from how much that last one hurt and that we were so close to being done! And then the baby started squirming. I couldn’t believe it! The baby was twisting the shoulders and even started kicking. It’s something I will never forget.

The next contraction came (not as bad) and out came the rest of the body. I couldn’t believe it! We had a baby! DH caught it and brought it out of the water. The cord was surprisingly short, so I had to be careful not to pull it, but still keep the baby’s head out of the water. The baby was beautiful! Dark hair, wide eyes! I don’t know how long DH and I just sat there, holding our baby and staring, but at some point I realized the midwife was draining the pool so I could sit down (I was bracing myself up out the water to keep the baby’s face above water) and at some point she told me that I would have another contraction and needed to push the placenta out. That was not what I wanted to hear. But, when the next contraction came I pushed just a little and the placenta came out just fine. It wasn’t bad at all.

Finally, the midwife asked if we were going to check if it was a boy or a girl. DH and I looked at each other and he slowly moved the cord out of the way. It was a girl! A baby girl! A daughter. A perfect, healthy baby daughter.

Her birth was perfect, the best experience of my life.

K La has aspirations to travel around the globe and then among the stars. Her goals are to save the earth and change the world. Before becoming pregnant for the first time, K La didn’t know that a Home Birth was even an option. Ever since her birth experience, she tries to let every women know they have options! She believes all women should give birth where they feel the most safe.

Twig’s Birth Story

The night before I had been wondering if my amniotic fluid was leaking very slightly. My underwear was slightly damp and I was fairly sure it wasn’t urine or cervical fluid. When we got home from watching a basketball game at my in-laws’ around 11:30pm, I decided to just change my underwear and go to sleep. I woke around 3am to pee and didn’t have anything gush out when I stood up, though my underwear was damp again. I figured it wasn’t amniotic fluid and went back to sleep. I had a midwife appointment the next day, so I’d ask about it then.

We woke at around 8:30am and I got up to pee. I was still sitting on the toilet taking care of other business after I peed when I felt a small gush. It was obvious it wasn’t pee by both the amount and the sensation. I called my husband in and told him of my suspicions and he brought me a cloth pad. I decided I’d just tell the midwife about it at our appointment in a couple hours.

I got up and went into Peanut’s room to help her take her diaper off. When I went to put the diaper in the pail, I felt another gush and ran to the bathroom to stand in the shower. I called in my husband and told him that for sure my water had broken and he took my went clothes to the hamper and brought me new ones. We called the midwife at 8:48 and she said that contractions would probably start within a couple of hours, if they didn’t, we could come to our appointment. If they did, she could have her assistant stop by to check on us on her way into the office.

While we were debating if my husband should go to work, contractions started. They were around 5-6 minutes apart and pretty strong from the get go. We figured I still had a while and they were just strong because of the lack of fluid cushioning the baby against my cervix. We decided he should go in to make sure things were in order for his paternity leave and then come right home. We called the midwife at 9:21am and told her contractions had started. She asked us to time them and said she’d see if her assistant was still in the area. She said she’d call us back when she knew.

While he was gone, Peanut and I ate cereal and a blueberry muffin. It was painful to sit through the contractions so I started walking in the kitchen. They were getting pretty intense and I was wishing I could get in the birth pool, but realized it wouldn’t be wise to even fill it, let alone get into it, this early in labor. I decided it was smart to take a shower and get clean for the last time in a while anyway, so I got in.

Peanut was dilly-dallying downstairs so I called her up. She tried to tell me something, but I was too distracted. She climbed in and I started cleaning myself. A few minutes later, my husband came in and told me the midwife’s assistant was here and Peanut was supposed to have told me when she came up. I finished getting clean as quickly as possible and headed downstairs to meet her.

She checked my blood pressure and the baby’s heartbeat. I told my husband to call my mother so she could come watch Peanut because I needed him. While he was in the other room on the phone, I stood through some contractions leaning over and the assistant pressed firmly with her hands flat on my back, which felt great. At this point I started vocalizing through contractions.

She asked to check my cervix and I agreed, hoping it would tell us this wasn’t just the beginning because the pain was getting so intense. She said I was at about 7cm and I felt immediate relief. She also said I had a bit of an anterior lip, which is a thickening of the cervix. She said, if I could tolerate it, I could lay there during a contraction and she could try pushing it out of the way. Not only could I tolerate it, but it made the contraction less intense. She said that meant that standing would probably bring the baby faster and that leaning forward like I was earlier was good for the lip. The assistant called the midwife to let her know the progress and I heard her say my contractions were about 3 minutes apart.

My husband came back and I said I wanted the birth pool. He and the assistant started filling it up and I walked the hall between contractions, calling my husband to come help when a contraction started. He pressed on my back and it helped, but the contractions were still very intense. Peanut almost melted down at one point when she wanted to push on my back with daddy, but he quickly gave her the job of pushing on my leg and she was happy to help.

After some amount of contractions, standing was hurting too much. I decided to lay on my side on the bed since the pool still wasn’t full. I started what I can only describe as howling through contractions and my husband did counter pressure on my knees and lower back. I started feeling like I could maybe push, but I thought it couldn’t be that time yet.

When the birth pool was full enough, I got in. It was freezing to me though, so they started boiling water on the stove. I was on all fours with my legs spread open in the pool and my husband got in to push on my back more. Peanut stood on the outside watching and trying to help. She was very good at listening and was happy  when we gave her the job of bringing mama water between contractions.

I started feeling like I needed to push, but it hurt when I did it. I almost stopped pushing because of the pain, but the midwife (who had just gotten there) and the assistant were cheering me on so I continued. It also provided some sort of relief to push, though it was still incredibly painful.

The contractions became more and more painful as I continued to push through them and I could tell they we’re further apart now. It was also quite painful between contractions, especially on my tailbone. They told me that it would feel better once the baby got past my tailbone, so I kept telling myself that to get myself to push harder.

The assistant was supporting my perineum on both top and bottom. She explained to me later that she supported both because it was shaped like a volcano, though I’m not sure what she meant. At one point I heard her ask my husband if he wanted to feel the baby and he did. This made me wonder how close the baby really was so I felt too and it was just inches from crowning, if that. My mom showed up around this time and started taking pictures. I started feeling the baby after contractions to know where it was until I started to be able to feel the baby crowning without the need to feel with my hand.

By this point the tailbone pain was gone, but the stretching pain replaced it. I was screaming as low as I could as I pushed and the midwives kept telling me I was doing great. It hurt so bad that I just wanted the baby out. Apparently I was screaming that I wanted it out. I pushed harder and more frequently trying to get the baby out until finally its head emerged, which relieved some of the intensity.

What happened next felt to me like the midwives were pulling the baby out of me and it was painful, though not as bad as the head coming out. It turned out that the baby had shoulder dysocia, which means its shoulder was stuck behind my pubic bone. They told my husband later that if we weren’t in the water, they would have let me push more before assisting, but in the water they needed to get the baby out before it got panicked and inhaled water.

The baby came out at 11:12am and I flipped over to hold it. My immediate feeling was relief that the pain is gone, but it was quickly followed my the intense joy over the fact I was holding my baby. It was still absolutely covered in vernix, which the midwife said that, along with looking at some other stuff (possibly something with its ears?), made the baby seem more like an early baby than a late baby. I don’t know how that would work out considering how positive we are on my date of ovulation.

They put a blanket over the baby when they placed it on me, so we didn’t look at the sex. After a couple of minutes my mother started to ask and I was amazed I was level-headed enough to say I wanted Peanut to check. I moved the blanket and Peanut told us the baby was a girl! She was ecstatic that the baby was here and she was a big sister now. And how much little sister looks like big sister!

We stayed in the pool while I started to nurse and pushed out the placenta, which we put in the container and allowed to float next to us in the water. My husband was behind me supporting me as I nursed and he cut the cord once the placenta was out, which the midwives said meant the cord was done pulsing.

The pool was getting cold, so we got out and went to the bed, where we nursed more. She nursed pretty much constantly for the next couple of hours actually. When she was unlatched at one point within those hours, we decided to take her measurements. She wasn’t very happy about it.

She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz, which I immediately tried to justify with all the nursing, but the midwife said she had also pooped while we were in the pool (something I didn’t notice), so it kind of evened out. She was 20.25 inches long and her head was 14 inches around. Certainly a big baby!

The midwives checked me out and I hadn’t torn. They weren’t concerned by my amount of bleeding until I tried to get up to shower and almost passed out. They told me my options were pitocin, an herb called shepard’s purse, or just wait it out. I decided to wait it out, but when I got up to pee I passed some large clots and lots of blood, so we decided to try the herb. It tasted disgusting, but quickly got my bleeding under control. The midwife went back to her office for her appointments, but the assistant stayed for a while to make sure things were okay.

Peanut immediately wanted to hold her new little sister, but was happy enough to play games with my mother as we got settled before taking a family of four nap. She is already absolutely in love with Meredith Renee. We all are.

Are you going to have a water birth?

33 Weeks 1 Day

It’s a question that almost always follows the announcement that we’re giving birth at home. I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m not generally met with outrage. I think that more people would be upset if it weren’t already expected that we’re “the weird ones.” I think that most family and friends realize that our parenting decisions differ from the general populace and that we feel strongly about them. We’ve had the occasional question about safety and what not, but mostly people just accept that we’re going to do what we do.

What surprises me though is when strangers don’t react. Somehow it ends up coming up in a conversation (e.g. “What hospital are you going to give birth at?”) or my proud mother decides to tell the world. :-P Either way it ends up coming up in general conversation more than I thought it ever would. Weirdly, the reaction generally isn’t shock or disgust, but “Are you planning on a water birth?” Somehow home birth and water birth appear to have gotten intertwined, at least in my neck of the woods.

What’s my answer? Maybe. Yeah, I’m awesomely non-committal like that.

I have no idea what I’ll feel like doing when I’m in labor. How would I possibly know? From what everyone says, the water is great when you’re in labor. Personally, I didn’t really like it last time. That may have been because I didn’t use it late enough in labor (the only tub was in my in-laws’ bathroom and I didn’t feel like disturbing them late at night, especially when I didn’t think I was close to birth yet). It could be that Peanut was posterior. I have no idea, I just know that I filled the tub and got back out within a few minutes because it just wasn’t helping me. What helped me was being on all fours in the shower and counter-pressure.

So who knows if it’ll help this time. Maybe it’ll be a lifesaver like everyone says it is. Maybe I’ll be disappointed with it’s lack of effectiveness again. Maybe I’ll be in an out of it and happen to be out when I want to push. So I’m planning on having on having it available (my midwife says that she has a kiddie pool that works perfect for birth and we can borrow), but I’m not going to make any decisions on what I want to do with it until I’m there. Like so many things with labor, it just varies.

I am now 33 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I am feels So. Incredibly. Pregnant. I seriously can’t understand how I have another two months to go! I’m sleeping all the time, still have heartburn like crazy, am irrationally irritable (though doing better on the “mean mommy” front I would say), and just sooooo uncomfortable. I don’t remember feeling like this so early last time.

I also don’t remember being so bit. I’ve been sneaking baths in the jacuzzi tub at both my in-laws’ and my parents’ whenever we go over there (our tub is pathetically small) and they both have very large mirrors that go lower than mine does. When I’m getting ready to get it the tub, I literally look at myself and think “Holy crap! When did I get this big?!?” I’ve on multiple occasions thought about having my husband come up and marvel at my large-ness, but then realize that he sees it every day. Even with feeling huge, I amazingly don’t feel fat. Honestly, the acne on my back bothers me more than my size. I still feel like my pregnant body is beautiful.

Are Hospitals Really Safer?

The great majority of births are in hospitals. In 2007 in the United States, only .62% of all births were at home. While trends show an increase in both homebirths and birth center births, they are still remarkably low.

I get it. As is obvious by the fact that I had an accidental home birth, I wasn’t planning on a home birth when I was pregnant with Peanut. No matter how naturally minded I got and how good a home birth sounded, it was terrifying to me. I whole-heartedly supported the idea of women giving birth at home, but I decided it just wasn’t for me. I needed the hospital to feel safe and, as the numbers above suggest, so do a great majority of moms-to-be.

Image courtsey of http://www.nytimes.com/

I started off my maternity care with my regular OBGYN. During my third trimester, I moved to the team of midwives in the office because I thought they would be better support for my natural birth. I told myself that it wasn’t that I was afraid of a homebirth, but that it wasn’t financially possible or that it wasn’t really our home. Truth be told, I think I was afraid. I liked the idea of a homebirth, but I was afraid to bring in another aspect of the unknown when the whole thing was already such new territory. Then, of course, Peanut came at home.

 

It was hard. It was scary. It was exactly what I want for this birth.

In my lab safety class, we’ve gone over a concept called risk perception. Risk perception is how you view a risk yourself. It’s entirely subjective and changes drastically depending on the person, current events, society you live in, et cetera. My original risk perception was that homebirth was less safe. We are taught that hospitals are wonderful places that save lives. We are taught that homebirth is an a crude thing that women used to do on farms and would often die shortly afterwards. There’s a commercial I often hear on the radio for a local hospital. It talks about how birth happens so frequently that it could be considered unimportant, but at their hospital they treat it like the miracle it is. Most babies are fine when they come into this world, but some aren’t so don’t you want the best care immediately available for your baby? Well, according to them, their hospital has the best of both worlds.

Part of risk perception isn’t only what you experience, such as in my case, but also what you know. Educating yourself means you can make educated decisions, which is the most important thing you can do for your family. The more you know, the better decision you can make. So I seek, as I always do on this blog, to educate. I will present information and hope that it helps you in your decision making process, no matter the outcome.

Here is our question: Are hospitals really the best for your birth?

First off, let’s examine birth in the United States. We rank 42nd worldwide in neonatal mortality rate and worst in maternal mortality rate for industrialized nations (for a full comparison and rebuts to arguments against these numbers, watch this video). It is clear that there is something wrong with our maternity system. These numbers, not so surprisingly, correspond greatly with the increase in cesarean births that our country has experienced over the last decade. The cesarean section is a wonderful, life-saving surgery. The only problem is that it is used too often (a whopping 1 in 3 births in our country and rising). There is no reason our c-section rate should be this high and it is costing thousands of lives every year. Yes, costing lives. While c-sections are in some situations the best thing you can do to save either mom or baby’s life, they open a whole new area of complications. A cesarean section is major surgery and as any surgery does, comes with risks. Infection, injury to other organs, medication reactions, and even an increased risk of the placenta fusing with scar tissues in future pregnancies (which at very least means a hysterectomy if not death and increases in risk with every c-section) just to name a few.

So what does this have to do with homebirth? Giving birth at home means drastically decreased interventions. While that study is quite old, I’m certain that it still holds true for a comparison of home to hospital birth. If anything, with our changes to the maternity system in our country over the last couple of decades, I’d say that a more current comparison would fair even worse for the hospital. Interventions, even ones considered so common such as the epidural and pitocin, start the slippery slope towards a c-section, not to mention open a whole new range of possible complications.

But what about comparing death rates in the hospital and at home? A 2009 Canadian study did just that. They found that homebirth had comparable, if not better, outcomes than hospital births. Part of this was obviously perinatal (directly surrounding the time of birth, depending on the definition it can mean anywhere from 20-28 weeks gestation until 1-4 weeks postpartum) death rate. Homebirths were .35 (per 1000), hospital with a midwife was .57, and hospital with a doctor was .64. These are very small numbers, but there is still a significant difference between them. This study didn’t include women who were induced in the hospital, which is the traditional beginning of the slippery slope mentioned above.

There’s also the increased risk of infection presented in a hospital. No, hospitals are not sanitary. Hospitals are places where sick people go and germs spread. Hospitals contain high amounts of antibiotic resistant bacteria that can kill. Newborns have incredibly weak immune systems. Team this with the lack of support for breastfeeding in the hospital (and therefore less immunities for your little one) and you’re bound to get at least something minor, if not something more serious.

Now you take this information and do with it what you wish. I realize that even if I gave you a study that said that you were 10x more likely to die in a hospital birth, that you still may choose the hospital. Even with the knowledge of the slippery slope, many women will continue to choose an epidural because our society’s insistence that birth is pain that is worse than anything you can imagine and no one can or should have to endure it. These are ideas that are ingrained into our heads from a very early age and you can not change things overnight.

The difference now is that you know. You are given the knowledge that some of your preconceived notions about hospital births may not be what they seem. You can take this new knowledge and expand on it how you wish. You can do your own research and make an educated decision on what is best for you and your baby.

Setting Myself Up For Success

Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival!

This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe’s Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today’s post is about how birth experiences influence breastfeeding. Please read the other blogs in today’s carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!

As I prepare for my upcoming birth, I am continually amazed at how different this preparation is from preparing for a hospital birth. With Peanut’s birth, I felt that I had to fight against everything. I had to force the nurses not to ask me about pain medication. Had to force the doctors to not give me unnecessary interventions. Had to force the nurses afterwards not to give my daughter bottles or binkies or take her from my room. I was so afraid of this that I was willing to travel 40 miles to a hospital that is Baby-friendly Certified to help prevent a rough start to breastfeeding. Everything was a fight and I don’t know why I thought that was normal or okay.

When we went in for our initial meeting with our home birth midwife, she basically told me that everything in my last birth plan was moot. I don’t need to tell her not to give me unnecessary pitocin, I don’t need to tell her that I don’t want an epidural, and I most certainly don’t need to stress my desire to breastfeed to her or any of her assistants. It’s just all a given in this territory.

So all the little things last time that could have harmed my breastfeeding relationship won’t be there this time. There won’t be all the bad (and different from each other) advice from the nurses. There won’t be a lactation consultant with very minimal hours that just walks in and pops the baby on without actually explaining anything. There won’t be a doctor worried about my daughter’s “thick blood” (after giving her a vitamin K shot that I didn’t want, which in my opinion caused this) and pushing me to give her Pedialyte.

This time there will be only people around me that support my natural childbirth and breastfeeding. There will be people that can help me rather than confused me. I am choosing to surround myself with only people there to fight for me rather than against me. I will certainly be interested to see how the early month’s of Twig’s breastfeeding relationship contrast the early months of Peanut’s.
 

 
Here are more post by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.

Intuition and Ultrasonic Rays

11 Weeks 0 Days about to do some yardwork.

I’ve been really up in the air about ultrasounds and dopplers. These two things are considered par for the course in a regular pregnancy, but surprisingly enough that’s not recommended. The American Pregnancy Association only recommends ultrasounds (including dopplers) if there is a medical concern. So why do most moms have at least one ultrasound during pregnancy? When I was pregnant with Peanut, I had 3 ultrasounds (one at 6-7 weeks because I had some bleeding, one at 18-ish weeks to check the sex and all of the other regular checks, and one at around 40 weeks to check the amnionic fluid amount) and doppler used at Every. Single. Prenatal. Appointment. A healthy, young mom taking care of herself, not using drugs, and no family history of birth defects and I needed that many ultrasounds? I was the epitome of low risk and still exposed my child to these potentially harmful ultrasonic rays that many times just because I didn’t know.

The emphasis in that sentence is potentially harmful. We don’t know if ultrasounds are harmful. Most things I’ve read say that they could be. There are emotional risks too. Some studies say that babies who aren’t diagnosed with problems prenatally end up doing better once they’re born, possibly because the birth is allowed to go on normally (no induction or c-sections) and the babies get more time to cook. Not to mention the high rate of false positives (same link) when it comes to things like placenta previa. Actually, I was told I might have that when I had my second ultrasound, but luckily I didn’t stress because my doctor also told me that it would grow upward with time.

It’s always the kicker of making a decision when you don’t have hard facts that tell you to go one way or the other. If they told me that ultrasounds could give my baby a third arm, it would be easy-peasy to make this decision. If they were entirely useless, it would make the decision easy. The problem is that there is potential for the rays to heat the baby and if they do, we don’t know if it actually hurts them. There is potential for the ultrasound to diagnose life-threatening problems in time to save a life, but that’s a rare occurrence.

So here’s what I’ve decided to do: I’m not getting an ultrasound unless there proves to be a medical reason for one. The doppler is basically a higher intensity ultrasound that happens for shorter amounts of time, so the same thing goes there–with one little adjustment. I decided to hear Twig’s heartbeat at my appointment yesterday just for the reassurance. I talked with my midwife about it and she basically said that she’s there just to support my decision. She also said that pregnancy is a physical and emotional experience. She said this in the context of if I was worried about a procedure and it’s safety, I should skip it.

For me, it also applied to this situation. With a fetoscope, I wouldn’t be able to hear the baby for at least another 5 weeks, if not 9. So I decided that for piece of mind, I wanted to hear the baby once before then. Other moms might not agree with this decision, but it made me feel better to know that this tiny little thing is really growing in me. There’s something about hearing the heartbeat that makes this all more real. So I went with intuition and I’m happy about it.

I am now 11 weeks. Actually according to the midwife I’m a few days further along, but I think she was going by LMP rather than ovulation for some reason. Either way, it only changes things by a few days and Twig won’t care about a due date anyway.

Everything seems to be getting better. The nausea is still there, but getting less and less. Other than sleeping 12 hours a night, I’m getting some of my energy back. I feel like I can actually get up and do things in the day, which included a couple more Lagoon (amusement park) trips this past week. We decided to get season passes and Peanut is thrilled. Once again, if my toddler can go on a ride, I think that my pregnant self can handle it. If I get to the point where I feel like I can’t by the end of the season, then Peanut can go on the rides by herself.

I had my first prenatal appointment yesterday. We chatted about the ultrasounds and dopplers, I gave her my paperwork (basically a medical history type of thing) though we didn’t go over it, I peed on a stick to check for protein and sugar (I think?), I weighed myself (I’m not sure on my pre-pregnancy weight, but it seemed about where I’m at now, so I don’t think I’ve gained anything), and we listened to the baby. She knew I was concerned about the doppler so she made sure to figure out where the “bulk of the baby” was prior to putting the actual doppler on. Peanut was pretty scared about mama laying down on the table, but she seemed happy when she heard the heartbeat.

It’s Not Fair to Call Me Stupid

Peanut minutes after she was born in Daddy's arms (we still own that towel).

Many people think that we were stupid to have an accidental home birth. The first assumption is that our labor was so fast that we couldn’t get to the hospital in time. The second is that we were so stupid that we didn’t know it was time.

You weren’t there. You didn’t see the signs. You didn’t talk to the midwife on the phone and have her tell you that you still had a long time to go.

It’s not fair of anyone to judge our situation. Actually, from talking to other moms with posterior babies, the feelings I had were not unusual. I didn’t feel like the baby was coming because she was turned around and putting pressure on my bowel (the reason that the midwife and our Bradley teacher both thought I was constipated). The same thing causes my contractions that were anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes apart and very inconsistent. My water didn’t break. Given those signs and adding the fact that we didn’t want to go to the hospital until we absolutely had to, would you have gone in?

I’m guessing not.

Given the last 2 years to hear other people’s stories and process, I think I know what happened. It is my belief that my daughter was posterior for the majority of my labor. For a long time I was on the toilet “pushing” because the midwife said that once I was relieved of the constipation, the baby would come. Considering those two places are very close together, pushing in one place equates to at least some pushing in the other.

Then my daughter flipped around. I don’t know if she was in my birth canal or if all of the pushing before hand made her basically slip down into the birthing canal once she was in the right position. Either seems anatomically difficult, but it’s what makes the most sense for the sensations I was feeling. Suddenly, it felt like the pressure was in my vagina rather than my bowel. I thought myself crazy, but decided to check. Sure enough, she was just a few inches from crowning.

I immediately felt a strong urge to push her out. I don’t know if it was the sudden urgency of the situation if it was simply that she was finally in the correct position. Either way, it was the strongest urge I’ve ever felt. Just a few pushes and she was out. I can’t give a good idea of a time frame, but I know it was quick.

I’m sure that part of what we saw during labor could have pointed us in the right direction. Possibly I would have recognized transition if it wasn’t my first labor, but it was so short (I literally said to my husband once “I don’t think I can do this” and he said “Yes you can” and that was it) that we didn’t recognize it. Maybe if I wasn’t so afraid of going into the hospital and being stuck there and having all of these interventions, I would have gone in to get checked. If I would have had a planned home birth, maybe the midwife would have recognized the signs of a posterior labor and realized I was closer than we thought. Maybe if our midwife hadn’t had been so certain that I was just constipated, we would have seen the signs that it wasn’t constipation rather than ignoring them because the midwife must be right.

All in all, there were many things working against us making it to the hospital in time. Some simple things like not realizing that I was in transition. Some much more complex like my water not breaking.

I don’t regret birthing Peanut at home, with or without attendants. What I regret is going to the hospital afterward. What I regret is having to hear flack from people for missing the signs. What I regret is the resentment I feel towards the people in my life that think I’m stupid or ignorant for having an accidental home birth.

Why I Want a Home Birth

6 weeks 1 day with a little Peanut head at the bottom.

I don’t believe that pregnancy and birth are illnesses and don’t want to be treated as such.

I want to be in control of my own birth.

I want someone who respects me to handle my care.

I don’t want to fight the system, I want to be exempt from it.

I don’t want to be tricked into things I don’t want to do.

I want to give breastfeeding it’s best shot.

I don’t want people offering me pain medication when I’m feeling weak.

I don’t want people taking advantage of me in general.

I want to give my child the best start in life.

I want to be in the privacy and love of my own home.

I want everyone present at my birth to be on my side.

I am now 6 weeks and 1 day along. I’m feeling less tired, but I think it’s partially because I’m giving in to every craving and letting myself get sleep where I can. I’ve figured out that it’s not about letting myself have just 300 extra calories a day, but eating to hunger. I have to remember that since I’m still nursing, this isn’t a normal pregnancy when it comes to calorie intake. This morning I had two bowls of rice crispies with a banana sliced on top of each and I felt good about it.

I’m also feeling nausea for sure. I don’t think I’ll get away so lucky with avoiding vomiting like I did with Peanut. Actually, if I would have had anything to throw up in my stomach the other morning, I would have already broken that record. Saturday when we were at my aunt’s funeral I got pretty nauseous, but I used the Preggie Pop sample I got and it seemed to work well enough. I think that was mostly a lack of eating. I’ll definitely be getting some more of those.

I’m also feeling pretty touched out. I just start to feel frustrated when Peanut won’t leave my lap or keeps kicking me while twirling around on the couch. Luckily, the nursing stuff is getting better though. It’s kind of silly that I’m more okay with nursing, but don’t want her on me. Weird ways our bodies work. Either way, she’s getting to nurse more often and it seems to help a bit. I’m also trying to get little bits of time away from Peanut to just unwind like going to a movie with my husband or going to the grocery store by myself. Lastly, I’m getting a better handle on housework again, so that’s helping me feel less stressed.