Oh I get it now...

[Lucy&Jude'sMama]

I understand now why majority of the forums I have read that speak about UC suggest keeping quite about it.

I'm new here. I'm 4 months pregnant with number 2 and I'm planning to UC. Originally the plan was to wait on the whole 2nd baby thing so that we could save up to afford a midwife for a homebirth. Well... hahaha... that didn't happen. No biggy. I live in CA and the two homebirth midwives available here cost $4000+ and it has to be paid before you give birth. Uhhh... considering I'm on preggo medi-cal and sort of in the low-income threshold... that's just not going to happen. I am seeing midwives for my prenatal care which is covered by medi-cal… so far have been supportive of my birth choices. They however can not do homebirths. Suckville.

Little bit about me... My first born in 08 was a girl (the one in the belly is a boy! Yay!) Anyways Lucy was born at the hospital with a midwife. I'd never heard of UC before so I didn't even consider it the first time. I just did what I was told. Kind of. I had Lucy as naturally as possible for a hospital setting. They tried to hook me up the minute I got there. Which by the way was 20 hours before I had her... ya first time parent... Once my water broke I just thought she'd ya know... pop out. hahaha Silly me. Anyways so they tried to get me IVs and when I asked "Uh...WHY?" They smiled and said "to keep you hydrated of course"... to which I replied "Oh well thank you, but I'm more than capable of drinking water" Huff puff and off the nurse went.

After 10 hours they came in to try to shoot me up with some pitocin. I smiled said don't even think about it and my boyfriend kicked them out. I was able to labor in a tub, but due to liability I had to get out ever hour so they could check the baby... This was ok when I was 2-5 centimeters dilated... after 5 cm I was ready to kill them. Actually I found out I'm very nice during labor and calm. Which surprised me... but in my head I was killing them every time they moved me.

Anyways long story short my labor and birth of Lucy was pretty good for a hospital setting. A very kind nurse took care of me most of the time. My midwife came when I was ready to push. Lucy was placed on my chest as soon as she was born and I didn’t tear down below. However I hated all the poking and prodding. I also hated how out of touch a hospital feels. Of course once I had Lucy I adamantly said I was never going to get pregnant again. hahaha

Well here I am with number two and with only two options. UC at home or go natural at a hospital and just deal with the bull.

Mmmmmm I'm leaning towards the UC. I posted on a local mommy forum I'm apart of that I was interested in UC and that I wondered if anyone on the forum knew anyone who had done it and if they could give me some advice.... Yes well now I realize why its all "hush" "hush"... I was bombarded with people telling me "Oh you really should find away to have a midwife", "If I hadn't been in the hospital my baby would have died", "that's just not safe"... blah blah blah. Everyone had to give there opinion and horror stories.

OIY! So sorry for this long post, but I'm really happy I found this forum. I'm about to buy some books for more research into UC and mentally preparing myself. Luckily for me my boyfriend and family support my decision. Which is good considering I'm the type of person who if you tell me I can't do something I'm bloody going to show you that I can! And with a smile too.

[carolina~mom2be]

Welcome Momma~! Yaay for you and your choice to UC. I couldn't imagine having my babies any other way I'm so happy that you found a place to come with lots of support and positive energy for you during this important time!

[Kidzaplenty]

Welcome to the club!

I just love this forum. I found it in the same way you did. When I mentioned UC on another board, I was bombarded with tons of negitivity. Then some wonderful person gave me this link. I was hooked! And I never looked back.

[accountclosed3]

when i first discovered UC, i mentioned it on a vegetarian forum (where we were talking about vegetarian pregnancy, birth, etc). and one woman was so livid about it, she said "you shouldn't talk about it, even if you want to do it for youself, because what if another woman does it and gets hurt r her baby gets hurt? you would be culpable in that." and i'm like "uh, ok, you don't get it." she tried to get me banned for talking about it. LOL then a friend on that board pointed me here.

that was *years* before i gave birth. a UC, of course. and a UP. it's great. read up. lots of good stuff in the stickies.

[5gifts]

It's funny how I first 'heard' about UC. I was in Fla, 10 weeks on with #4 and had no insurance. I wanted a homebirth, met the midwife, and found out how much $$ it was...well there was no way! I was in tears, I called back and talked to the office lady, thinking they would work with me some how. I finally just burst out with (through tears) "well what am I going to do?!? Just do it by myself?" It didn't accur to me AT ALL that people did it alone on purpose. The lady kind of flatly said "well sure, you could do that."

I was stunned. And the next day, a good friend told me about her neighbor across the street that did up/uc with all 3 of their little girls. So that's what I ended up doing : )

[featherstory]

I'm also planning a UC, due in August. I have been studying doula/midwifery, etc. for a few years, so I heard about it before I had my first, and considered, seriously looked into doing it with her, but she was my first and I didn't want to tell any except my SO that I was considering that. He was somewhat okay with the idea of it, but I finally found a good midwife and went with her, had a homebirth. I was on medicare(?) at the time in another state and it paid for the whole thing, although I had no prenatal care until my last trimester when I found my midwife.

Now I am back in California and I live in a place where there are no homebirth midwives, there are no midwives at all, anywhere near where I live. I'm trying to be the first, or at least the first midwife-in-training here, but in the meantime, I am thinking of going west a little from where I am and renting a cabin or something for the month of birth, I live in the desert and don't exactly want to have even an UC here, but it will at least be better than a hospital birth, that I cannot and will not do.

[momsmyjob]

Welcome~ That is exactly how I plan my next one. I've done HB with a midwife but this time I want to go UC.

Good luck with everything and I would suggest Laura Shanley's book.