I'm planning my first homebirth for baby #2 due in June. After DS's birth in the hospital I knew we would have the next one at home. We told my family the news recently and I was pretty surprised at one response. My brother, who is an LPN (working to be an RN), I expected to be totally against it. (After all, he is the only one who would argue politics with me so why not this?) It turns out, he was totally supportive of it! He just finished his week of working on the maternity floor and was talking about how cool it was to see the births since they weren't his own children & it was fascinating, etc. etc.
He even asked if I had seen the Business of Being Born... I was shocked he had heard of it, but it turns out he watched it in one of his nursing classes?
Pretty cool... So yeah, that really surprised me.
I was also thinking about my mom. She has always been supportive of whatever we wanted to do, and trusts our decisions (about vax, etc.). The first discussions we had about HB she had the typical questions "What if.." and we answered them, she seemed convinced. The more I have thought about this though, I am really proud of her for being as supportive as she is. The reason is that all she has experienced of birth was unpleasant. At 19, she delivered stillborn twins. When she got pregnant with my oldest brother a few years later, her body refused to go into labor because she was so terrified of a vaginal delivery. (A dr. had told her that a c-section might have saved the twins.) Induction did nothing and she had a c-section, which she was very happy with because she felt it would give her a healthy baby. She had 2 more c-sections after that, I was her last one. Although she hasn't talked about it much she did tell me that she was so terrified of going into labor and giving birth again, after delivering her twins. I can't imagine how hard that was for her. But I do understand why she would be skeptical about the way I am embracing birth and trusting my body.
Yet, she is still supportive and happy that we are making this choice. She won't be at the birth (no family will, just DH), but I think in some ways that once she sees our new baby born in such a peaceful, natural way, it will restore some of her faith in the birth process...
I know this is long & rambly but I was just thinking about this stuff today so I thought I'd share.... maybe someone can relate.
He even asked if I had seen the Business of Being Born... I was shocked he had heard of it, but it turns out he watched it in one of his nursing classes?
Pretty cool... So yeah, that really surprised me.I was also thinking about my mom. She has always been supportive of whatever we wanted to do, and trusts our decisions (about vax, etc.). The first discussions we had about HB she had the typical questions "What if.." and we answered them, she seemed convinced. The more I have thought about this though, I am really proud of her for being as supportive as she is. The reason is that all she has experienced of birth was unpleasant. At 19, she delivered stillborn twins. When she got pregnant with my oldest brother a few years later, her body refused to go into labor because she was so terrified of a vaginal delivery. (A dr. had told her that a c-section might have saved the twins.) Induction did nothing and she had a c-section, which she was very happy with because she felt it would give her a healthy baby. She had 2 more c-sections after that, I was her last one. Although she hasn't talked about it much she did tell me that she was so terrified of going into labor and giving birth again, after delivering her twins. I can't imagine how hard that was for her. But I do understand why she would be skeptical about the way I am embracing birth and trusting my body.
Yet, she is still supportive and happy that we are making this choice. She won't be at the birth (no family will, just DH), but I think in some ways that once she sees our new baby born in such a peaceful, natural way, it will restore some of her faith in the birth process...
I know this is long & rambly but I was just thinking about this stuff today so I thought I'd share.... maybe someone can relate.
for your mom. I can see why she would be afraid of birth because of her experiences.
