A little background: I am in WA, I have one child via homebirth with an excellent midwife, and another on the way. I am 26 weeks pregnant, and working with the same midwife.
A few days ago, I went into the hospital because I was experiencing pain in my abdomen. I was diagnosed with gallstones and told I need to have my gall bladder removed. Performing the surgery now would impose serious risk to my child, so the plan is to attempt to medically manage my condition and attempt to get the child to full term with plans for surgery several weeks after the child is born. If medical management stops working and my condition becomes acute again, all bets are off and we will need to go to surgery dispite the stage of the pregnancy.
All of that being said, I am afraid of having a hospital birth if it is not medically needed. My doctor is anti-home birth, so discussing this with him most likely won't get me very far. We are a military family, so I can't choose another hospital - I get the military hospital regardless of my comfort level with them. I have dealt with anxiety issues my whole life, and I feel that the low stress enviroment of being home is the best for both myself and my child if I can make it to full term (with a preterm child I realize that the hospital is where I need to be, but I am really more asking about if the gallstone issue remains in control). I realize that birth plans are not really helpful in most hospital situations and I feel that the staff at my hospital are leaning toward the more invasive side of birthing based on experiences of friends who have birthed there.
So basically, I need advice of where to go from here and how to proceed - either to protect myself from the intervention cascade at the hospital or to stay out of the hospital. I have a meeting set up with my midwife in a week to discuss this with her as I prefer to discuss this face to face. So I do not yet know her comfort level with this situation, but I will be fully disclosing the situation to her. However, I do know that she does not have privilages at the military hospital and if she attended my birth there it would be more in a doula capacity than having the authority to make dicisions as my midwife.
I want to stay safe and keep my baby safe, and in an emergent birthing situation I feel that hospitals have their place. However, because my issue is really not a problem with the baby, I would like to keep my birth at home if possible. I don't really know how to stand up for myself with hospital staff without coming off as distrusting and combative (especially since I don't really trust them) but I know that pissing people off won't help me much. Any ideas ladies?
Thanks for your ideas on this frustrating situation!
A few days ago, I went into the hospital because I was experiencing pain in my abdomen. I was diagnosed with gallstones and told I need to have my gall bladder removed. Performing the surgery now would impose serious risk to my child, so the plan is to attempt to medically manage my condition and attempt to get the child to full term with plans for surgery several weeks after the child is born. If medical management stops working and my condition becomes acute again, all bets are off and we will need to go to surgery dispite the stage of the pregnancy.
All of that being said, I am afraid of having a hospital birth if it is not medically needed. My doctor is anti-home birth, so discussing this with him most likely won't get me very far. We are a military family, so I can't choose another hospital - I get the military hospital regardless of my comfort level with them. I have dealt with anxiety issues my whole life, and I feel that the low stress enviroment of being home is the best for both myself and my child if I can make it to full term (with a preterm child I realize that the hospital is where I need to be, but I am really more asking about if the gallstone issue remains in control). I realize that birth plans are not really helpful in most hospital situations and I feel that the staff at my hospital are leaning toward the more invasive side of birthing based on experiences of friends who have birthed there.
So basically, I need advice of where to go from here and how to proceed - either to protect myself from the intervention cascade at the hospital or to stay out of the hospital. I have a meeting set up with my midwife in a week to discuss this with her as I prefer to discuss this face to face. So I do not yet know her comfort level with this situation, but I will be fully disclosing the situation to her. However, I do know that she does not have privilages at the military hospital and if she attended my birth there it would be more in a doula capacity than having the authority to make dicisions as my midwife.
I want to stay safe and keep my baby safe, and in an emergent birthing situation I feel that hospitals have their place. However, because my issue is really not a problem with the baby, I would like to keep my birth at home if possible. I don't really know how to stand up for myself with hospital staff without coming off as distrusting and combative (especially since I don't really trust them) but I know that pissing people off won't help me much. Any ideas ladies?
Thanks for your ideas on this frustrating situation!
