Earthy low intervention home birthers unite - Page 2

[Banana731]

Originally Posted by northcountrymamma

anyone using a fetoscope rather than a doppler...or even a pinard horn (I think they are fabulous!).

If my MW is down with this, I would be too. We used one for fun in my last pregnancy, but did use a doppler in labor.

I did use a doppler last time. I got prenatal care in a military hospital. Most of those people have never even heard of a fetoscope, I'd wager. I *almost* got away with just that, but at the end they insisited on doing a u/s to make sure I didn't have previa because I am a VBAC mom. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense, but I was intending to UC so I wanted to stay as under the radar as I could, for as long as possible. When the UAviolation OB in charge of VBAC at the military hossy found out I hadn't had any and didn't want any u/s said to the CNM I was seeing, "what's wrong with her, why doesn't she want an u/s?" and then told her I had to have the aformentioned scan. This cat has major control issues, he is infamous there! Anyway, she knew I didn't want one, so she did a 30sec in office just to find the placenta.

In a Japanese hospital where I lived, they did u/s at every prenatal visit. Every visit, can you even imagine?!

[newlywaaz]

ultra low-intervention birther here. I feel like a witness to the hospitals every time I go in! the first time I had monitoring done twice, a hep lock inserted (required), and the doc checked for a cord and helped me deliver b/c of my weird positioning (propped up on the toilet). The second time they monitored once and checked for a cord and I delivered onto a sheet on the bathroom floor. Oh, and put a hep lock in as I was pushing (talk about ridiculous). that's it! I had the freedom to birth how I chose, was able to mentally block everyone else out, and really felt like it was a HB experience in a hospital setting. The best part: no cleanup for me! I'm excited to do it again, hoping to show more nurses just how "normal" birth is supposed to look. Even my post-partum behaviour is considered odd, with no eye goop or vit. k shot for my babies, nobody takes baby from my arms until at LEAST the placenta is delivered and cord cut, and rooming in, cloth diapers and exclusive breastfeeding. I get all kinds of extra visits from gawking nurses, it's funny.

[Sihaya]

With DS, I was extremely low intervention. I had no ultrasounds, my midwife used a fetoscope instead of her doppler, and I only had the GBS test in case of transfer. We ended up using vitamin K drops because DS was bruised from a fast and furious birth and cutting the cord right away because it had ripped, but those were both neccessitated by the circumstances, not interventions for their own sake.

This time, though, will be a bit different. After two losses in a row, I'm now taking Prometrium to help sustain this pg. Prometrium can prolong a pg that has already ended, so I'll be having an early ultrasound with my new OB at 8 weeks to check for a heartbeat and make sure babe's growth is on target, then OB appts with doppler at 12 and 16 weeks for the same reason, then back to low-intervention with my homebirth midwife and the fetoscope at 20 weeks. I do plan on having the GBS test done again in case of transfer.

It's much more important to me to have peace of mind and do what I think is right for this baby right now than to shun all technology out of a sense of purism, but I'm also not going to go completely high-intervention due to my losses if I don't think it's warranted.