T1 Diabetes and Home Birthing?

[JustMelissa]

Hi everyone!  My name is Melissa, and I've been a T1 Diabetic for 20 years; I'm now 30 and finishing my last two years of nursing school for my BSN.  I'm not yet pregnant, but I'm planning !

A little about me:

I currently use Lantus and Regular insulins with a sliding scale based on a (generally) very low carbohydrate diet.  My A1Cs haven't been exemplary, but I want to wait for the new Jewel pump by Debiotech because I had several bad experiences with my minimed 506 (clogged tubing, skin infections, it being heavier than a lead weight, holsters for it popping open or sliding down, you name it).

After talking to my boyfriend about home birth with minimal intervention, he agreed that it's probably the best option for me (as long as I'm healthy).  I have a bad case of white coat hypertension, and generally speaking, a poor opinion of health care providers due to 20 years of "oops! well in your case...".  There are so many standard birthing procedures for diabetics that I disagree with: the largest is the idea of having a baby in a hospital (c diff for my baby?  no thanks!), an insulin/glucose drip, epidural, induction, CS, episiotomy, force feeding babies glucose (babies need protein imo).  

As I said, I'm interested in home birth with minimal intervention, but I'm not sure how to get to those options.  It isn't as if it's advertised like hospitals, so I was hoping for some suggestions before I find myself pregnant and surprised. 

Thanks Very Much,

Melissa

Edited by JustMelissa - 12/31/10 at 7:38am

[Naturopath Mom]

Can you find some local groups and ask around? LLL or some mom groups might know. Word of mouth. You could try asking health food stores if they know any midwives. Then you can try searching on the web, that is how I found mine. Try typing in your city if it is large enough or just your state and start sorting through them. Some will travel a distance. I do not know much about birthing with t1 diabetes, but I hope you can find an awesome midwife that does!