The first step to delivering at the birth center near me is to attend an orientation class. Hubby and I did that yesterday. It went well, and he's FULLY comfortable with me being there now, we even were able to discuss laboring at my midwife/doula's house once he saw how close she lives! (literally across the street, the walk from the parking garage to the birth center is about the same distance as the walk from her house to the birth center!)
So we went to the desk and checked in, they gave us badges and directions. I'd never been there before. To get there you have to literally walk THROUGH labor and delivery ward, then you turn a corner and suddenly it goes from bright flourescent hospital lights and bland tile floors to soft lighting, carpet, and comfy couches in what looks like a mini living room/kitchen space. That's the birth center! There are three "bedrooms" just off the main living room/kitchen area, and those are the birthing rooms. There's a nice queen sized bed, two rocking chairs, and a baby bassinet in the room. There's a bathroom in each room with a LARGE jacuzzi tub that can fit several people. And that's basically it!
The nurse leading the orientation said that you are free to labor wherever you want, in your room, on the couches, in the kitchen, wherever. You can bring your own food and put it in the fridge, and they don't limit what or when you eat or drink (although she said that they don't limit it because they don't have to, most women won't want to eat in active labor, which has always been true for me, I puke a lot in active labor!) you can also order food from room service or even from the various take out restaurants near the hospital. You can have as many support people as you want, and aside from doppler checks every 30 minutes or so, they leave you alone unless you want them.
No routine IVs (unless GBS positive), you can birth in water or on the bed or standing in the corner, there's never separation of mom and baby, they hold off on the newborn exam for several hours, they delay clamping the cord, no one will bat an eye if I choose to decline eye ointment or HepB but she hesitated about Vit K saying that it's up to the Ped and many would "take issue" with it (although I know the law, but I'm still going to talk to the ped and see if we can come to an agreement without me having to pull the legal card). I do plan on doing the newborn blood screen (PKU, metabolics, etc) and hearing test, so no problem there.
It just was very cozy, very warm, very welcoming, and very laid back. After the orientation I asked the nurse if we could also walk around the regular L&D ward, and she said of course and took us to a regular room. It looked just fine, but she started rattling off their "policies" including routine IV, continuous monitoring, pretty much have to stay in your room, and she even said "you'll most likely be given an epidural" making it sound like whether you ask for it or not, they'll keep bringing it up until you doubt yourself and you just accept it (which is exactly how it went during my first birth, they accepted me saying no at first, but as labor went on and on and got more and more painful, the nurse finally just said "this'll go a lot faster and be so much easier on all of us if you'd just get an epidural, I went ahead an paged anesthesia for you"
My husband really liked it, he has no doubts in my body's ability to birth a baby, but he is still very scared from the events of my first two births. My first was the typical cascade of interventions, plus an LGA baby that was posterior. Labor went on and on, I developed a fever, baby eventually started having decels, he got stuck on my pubic bone, they used the vacuum, I had an episiotomy, he ended up in NICU and I bled A LOT. We were just happy to have a living baby, honestly! It was very scary. My second was a wonderful birth, fast, non complicated, baby was almost a pound smaller and in a perfect position, I pushed him out on my own in about 15 minutes. But he was special needs, we didn't know it, he had to be resuscitated and placed on CPAP, a tube threaded down to his lungs, and the medical journey we've been on with him over the past 2 years has been exhausting and heart breaking.
So although my husband now understands that my body knows what it's doing and can function perfectly if just left alone, he has a deep rooted fear that *something* will go wrong, either with me or with the baby, and if that goes wrong anywhere other than a hospital, we could lose me or baby. I understand that fear, so this birth center is the perfect compromise.
And him realizing how close my midwife/doula's house is is a good thing, too. Because of how fast my last labor was, he would prefer to leave for the hospital early, but I know that it's better to basically show up ready to push. However, I also don't want to have a 20-30 minute drive while I"m in transition. So if the timing works, we might go to her house and let me labor there, then walk to the birth center when it's time or when I want the water. She's had other women do that, and two (I think) have actually ended up birthing there "accidentally" (it really was an accident, they hit transition and said "I'm not walking anywhere"!). I don't want to "plan" an "accident", but it makes me feel good to know that it's a good back up plan, you know?
So anyway, now I just have to make sure this pregnancy stays low-risk, keep my blood pressure low, watch my blood sugar, and convince baby to move to head-down position before 36 weeks He really likes transverse!
So we went to the desk and checked in, they gave us badges and directions. I'd never been there before. To get there you have to literally walk THROUGH labor and delivery ward, then you turn a corner and suddenly it goes from bright flourescent hospital lights and bland tile floors to soft lighting, carpet, and comfy couches in what looks like a mini living room/kitchen space. That's the birth center! There are three "bedrooms" just off the main living room/kitchen area, and those are the birthing rooms. There's a nice queen sized bed, two rocking chairs, and a baby bassinet in the room. There's a bathroom in each room with a LARGE jacuzzi tub that can fit several people. And that's basically it!
The nurse leading the orientation said that you are free to labor wherever you want, in your room, on the couches, in the kitchen, wherever. You can bring your own food and put it in the fridge, and they don't limit what or when you eat or drink (although she said that they don't limit it because they don't have to, most women won't want to eat in active labor, which has always been true for me, I puke a lot in active labor!) you can also order food from room service or even from the various take out restaurants near the hospital. You can have as many support people as you want, and aside from doppler checks every 30 minutes or so, they leave you alone unless you want them.
No routine IVs (unless GBS positive), you can birth in water or on the bed or standing in the corner, there's never separation of mom and baby, they hold off on the newborn exam for several hours, they delay clamping the cord, no one will bat an eye if I choose to decline eye ointment or HepB but she hesitated about Vit K saying that it's up to the Ped and many would "take issue" with it (although I know the law, but I'm still going to talk to the ped and see if we can come to an agreement without me having to pull the legal card). I do plan on doing the newborn blood screen (PKU, metabolics, etc) and hearing test, so no problem there.
It just was very cozy, very warm, very welcoming, and very laid back. After the orientation I asked the nurse if we could also walk around the regular L&D ward, and she said of course and took us to a regular room. It looked just fine, but she started rattling off their "policies" including routine IV, continuous monitoring, pretty much have to stay in your room, and she even said "you'll most likely be given an epidural" making it sound like whether you ask for it or not, they'll keep bringing it up until you doubt yourself and you just accept it (which is exactly how it went during my first birth, they accepted me saying no at first, but as labor went on and on and got more and more painful, the nurse finally just said "this'll go a lot faster and be so much easier on all of us if you'd just get an epidural, I went ahead an paged anesthesia for you"
My husband really liked it, he has no doubts in my body's ability to birth a baby, but he is still very scared from the events of my first two births. My first was the typical cascade of interventions, plus an LGA baby that was posterior. Labor went on and on, I developed a fever, baby eventually started having decels, he got stuck on my pubic bone, they used the vacuum, I had an episiotomy, he ended up in NICU and I bled A LOT. We were just happy to have a living baby, honestly! It was very scary. My second was a wonderful birth, fast, non complicated, baby was almost a pound smaller and in a perfect position, I pushed him out on my own in about 15 minutes. But he was special needs, we didn't know it, he had to be resuscitated and placed on CPAP, a tube threaded down to his lungs, and the medical journey we've been on with him over the past 2 years has been exhausting and heart breaking.
So although my husband now understands that my body knows what it's doing and can function perfectly if just left alone, he has a deep rooted fear that *something* will go wrong, either with me or with the baby, and if that goes wrong anywhere other than a hospital, we could lose me or baby. I understand that fear, so this birth center is the perfect compromise.
And him realizing how close my midwife/doula's house is is a good thing, too. Because of how fast my last labor was, he would prefer to leave for the hospital early, but I know that it's better to basically show up ready to push. However, I also don't want to have a 20-30 minute drive while I"m in transition. So if the timing works, we might go to her house and let me labor there, then walk to the birth center when it's time or when I want the water. She's had other women do that, and two (I think) have actually ended up birthing there "accidentally" (it really was an accident, they hit transition and said "I'm not walking anywhere"!). I don't want to "plan" an "accident", but it makes me feel good to know that it's a good back up plan, you know?
So anyway, now I just have to make sure this pregnancy stays low-risk, keep my blood pressure low, watch my blood sugar, and convince baby to move to head-down position before 36 weeks
He really likes transverse!
