Suburban Granola » natural birth http://www.suburbangranola.com Our adventures living in the suburbs with five-ish kids. Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:16:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Home Birth http://www.suburbangranola.com/2010/02/07/home-birth/ http://www.suburbangranola.com/2010/02/07/home-birth/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:03:03 +0000 admin http://www.suburbangranola.com/?p=656 I have been seriously neglecting my blog. And now I don’t even know where to start. Big things have been happening in the Baker home. Most notably our decision to consider having a home birth for our 6th child. I have been searching the internet, asking friends, nurses, pretty much everyone if they know of midwives in the Nashville area. I have found a handful and now we are beginning the process of interviews.
So you might be wondering what in the world would inspire us to make this decision. There are many factors contributing to our wish to home birth. Our first child was born drug-free in a birthing center (not inside of a hospital) and was delivered by a midwife after 26 hours of hard labor. Our second daughter was born in a California hospital after only 3 hours and I had an epidural. The epidural was great, it had cut the pain just enough to give relief but I could still feel what was going on. I was able to get up and walk within an hour of her birth. Our third daughter was born in the same Ca hospital and also with an epidural but this time only half of my body got numb, really numb, and I couldn’t walk for hours after they removed it. They even had to wheel me to the bathroom on a cart. It was humiliating. At that time I figured if we had another child I would do it naturally. I mean why risk the side effects of the epidural if there was a chance that only half of me would be numb? We moved back to Tennessee where our son was born in a hospital, I had wanted that natural birth but was pressured by nurses into getting an epidural. For our fifth child I also wanted to have a natural birth and again was pressured by nurses into getting another epidural. This time I had serious complications from the epidural. My blood pressure plummeted and I had to be given round after round of drugs to keep my heart going. You know things are bad when the anesthesiologist doesn’t leave your side except to call and consult with another anesthesiologist. I was scared, I don’t remember anything about the birth except the feeling of being afraid for my own life. I was in a state of almost blacking out with my heart racing because of the drugs. It was terrifying. I was thinking “I can’t believe I could die and leave 5 kids behind because of a stupid epidural that I didn’t even want!”. I was very worried about what the drugs were doing to my baby. And I was angry. I was angry I was pushed into an epidural, angry no one stood up for me or my wishes for a drug-free birth. Somehow, everything turned out OK. Here is a picture of my big kids meeting their new baby sister for the first time.

Then in 2008, I had a molar pregnancy. It resulted in an emergency D&C. I had to undergo monthly cancer testing for an entire year. We were unable to try for another baby until that year was up. So to be honest, I have become quite phobic of the hospital. It could be post traumatic stress, I don’t know. The thought of going into labor makes me nervous. Not about the labor but about having to go the hospital. I was so nervous at the OBGYN that the last time I was there I forgot to ask some questions and forgot to mention that I have been having contractions already.

My husband had suggested when we first found out that we were expecting that we should “just do it at home”. I kind of laughed at the thought. What if something went wrong? What if the baby was in distress? That was 3 months ago. I have started to think differently.
I had a dream that I had the baby at home, and in the dream I felt very at peace. The dream made me start thinking about our first birth experience. It was very much like being at home. It was calm and peaceful, I wasn’t being forced into anything, no IV, no continuous fetal monitoring keeping me in bed, no beeping monitors, I was able to drink and even eat little bits, no bright blinding lights, I was able to get up and move around as I wished. After she was born she was placed on my chest and she never left my arms reach. We ate, took a short nap and went home within hours of her birth. All of the sudden I found myself longing for that experience again.

So now I am looking for the right midwife. I am not sure what questions I should ask. I am still doing my research.

I would love to hear from any of you who have had home births. What questions did you ask when choosing a midwife? What advice would you give?

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