Something I have come to think a lot about, and read a lot about is birth and pregnancy. I am an idealist and very much a thinker so when we choose not to go the normal route for birth and pregnancy, I personally needed reasons for doing it. The beginning of the decision was more about personal comfort than anything else. I didn’t want a huge needle in my back (I’m kind of a wimp), I didn’t want people I didn’t know seeing my most private parts (turns out during labor that really doesn’t matter) and I really have a negative feeling towards hospitals because in my mind they are for sick, dying people. What really encouraged me to look into midwives was when my doctor in College Station said she thinks most babies should be delivered by a midwife. I read research that showed that the mother mortality rate and infant mortality rate for low risk pregnancies were the exact same if you had a home birth or had a hospital birth. What I came to learn though was the C-section rate was vasting different. My birth class instructor told me that by having my baby out of the hospital, I had a reduced my chance of having a c-section by 40%. Crazy stuff. I think that had my labor happened like it had with an OB there is a great chance I would have had a c-section.
A lot of people ask me what a birth center was like and what I thought about using a midwife. When I tell them that I labored for 29 hours, most people make a comment about me using a doctor next time. I don’t know what we will do next time, it will be a matter of prayer but I do know that I am so thankful for my experience with the midwives and I would like to try to use one next time. Here are somethings I really enjoyed about using a midwife/ birthing center:
- Relaxing and home like atmosphere that helped me deal better with the pain of contractions
- Tub – I loved being in the tub
- Being able to move around and deal with contractions however I needed to – I wasn’t hooked up to any monitors
- The personal relationship I had with my midwife duirng pregnancy and getting to ask lots of questions and be asked questions.
- The accountability I had from my midwife with excercise and nutrition
- I personally really like all the natural remedies for problems that came up. Even as a child, I wasn’t a big fan of taking medicine.
- The support, love and encouragement I had during labor – the midwife that delievered Liza wasn’t even the one I met with duirng pregnancy but she still poured herself out for us.
- I loved laboring with believers around, the biggest blessing!
- Being able to make decisions about what was happening
- I liked the responsibility being put on me for my own health and health care decisions. My midwife constantly encouraged me to research decisions I had to make and I really enjoyed learning all of that stuff.
- The encouragement in breastfeeding and bonding with Liza after she is born. I really think my midwife was great at this and I am so so so thankful for that. I think Mark and I bonded really well with Liza and I am still able to successfully breastfeed because of their help. I know that hospitals are encouraging in breast feeding too so I don’t want this point to sound like you can’t breastfeed well if you have your baby in the hospital. I know plenty of moms who had hospital births and continue to nurse for a long time.
From this birth experience, I have really come to love the Lord more because I see how awesome our bodies were made. It is so neat to see how He made our bodies to have babies naturally. Yes, there are complications that come up in births and doctors/ medical interventions are very necessary but some complications can be prevented.
What brought this all up was watching a trailer for a movie on birth that will come out soon. It has opinions for all kinds of medical professionals about birthing and medical interventions. As a warning, the trailer does contain clips of breastfeeding. Here is the link: http://reducinginfantmortality.com/
