Mamas that have had an "oops" on purpose.... - Page 2

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I really am leaning to a opps.....but here is my dilema...help me think this out.

I live in Mexico along the Mexico/Texas border. I live about 10-15 min from Texas.

I am going to a free standing birth center in texas for prenatal care.

i had my last baby at home in the USA with a midwife and she was awesome... hands off...with everything, she showed up 30 min before baby came. It was a water birth.

This is baby #5 for me and I really want to just stay at home. I have not been able to find a midwife that will come to Mexico nor have i found a midwife in mexico.

The only problem i forsee is this....if i opps...how hard will it be to get the babies paper work to cross the baby over into the US. What if there is an emergency...and i need to take baby into the US for medical care....i would not want to take baby to a hospital here in Mexico...i've had not so good expierences here in Mexico with hospitals and doctors.

I will need to go through alot of stress to get the babies passport and papers to take him/her into the US.

This really is the only reason i would cross over to go to the birth center.

Im not sure what info the US embassy would need if the baby came here on the Mexico side at home!

I can not find much information on that.

There is info out there for a hospital birth abroad...but not homebirth abroad.

Any ideas mama's?

[zaci]

Hi. I have been trying to figure out the same thing because my husband's family live in nuevo laredo and I want to go stay with his mom and sister so I'd have more help at the end of my pregnancy. They seem to think finding someone to attend the birth wouldn't be that difficult, but if you are in a smaller city maybe it would be hard. The possibility of lots of paperwork also concerns me. All I could find out was that they have a form to fill out if you birth at a hospital. Right now I'm in minnesota so I can only check on the internet and I'm gonna ask my mom in law to go to the immigration office and ask there. So I guess right now I don't know any more than you, but I can let you know when I find out. With security at the border being so tight these days I am imagining a great big pain in the butt of paperwork. Lets hope it's not that bad.

Best wishes,

Zaci

[dayiscoming2006]

With my last kiddo, I birthed in Romania and I was concerned about the same thing if I had chosen or been able to give birth at home and could not find any information for a home birth. I went to the hospital there as a result. That totally sucked, but if you have a decent place to go, I'd do that over dealing with all that paperwork. All that stuff is a big pain and not something anyone wants to have to deal with after having a baby. I'm curious to find out what the PP finds out from her mom-in-law. 

[Banana731]

For moms in other countries...i gave birth unassisted in Japan. I needed a report of live birth from the city I lived in (I'm sure each country has an equvilent and process to get one) translated into English to give the US consulate in Japan (along with prenatal records and proof that I had given birth, I got a letter from my FP) to obtain a "US Consulate Certificate of Birth Abroad."  So I would think your first step is to ask the goverment office in the areas you want to birth in what they need from you if you have a homebirth in regards getting something offical that says you've given birth. Then I would call the closest US Consulate and ask them what they need in the way of documentation if you have a homebirth in that country. Then make sure that you have copies of your prenatal records with you when you give birth, and that you either film the birth or make sure you get a picture of the baby attached to the placenta before you birth the placenta (yes, it's a graphic picture, lol) because if you are birthing without an attendant, the biggest thing that you have to prove to the consulate and host government is that you gave birth, as opposed to stealing some newborn.

I know that I was unable to leave Japan until I had a passport for the baby, which I couldn't get until I had that certificate from the consulate, so I imagine the same would be true for you in Mexico. It took a little over 2 months, if I remember correctly, but I was also in a place where the process of getting passports for US babies runs like a well oiled machine (many babies born in a US hospital in that area). My personal hurdles took an extra 2 weeks or so. I would think that in your situations it might take longer to get the passports, though like anything, the Consulate can rush the process if they see fit.

Good Luck!

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

Neuvo Laredo is probably not a good place to be hanging out waiting for a baby right now. We live in Reynosa and it's very hostile between NL and the gulf coast. It's under war between the 2 cartels. My husband can not cross over into the US.....so that's another issue...if i do go to the birth center....he will not be at the birth. But again...i'm not sure how he would handle seeing me in labor...he's not to good with stressful situations and it may be more stressful on me in the long run.

I can not wait 2 months to cross over into the US.

So much can happen in 2 months time.

[Banana731]

Ponnie, things might be different for you though. Is DH a mexican national? How does that affect your baby's citizenship? If baby is entitled to both, he would get Mexican documentation much faster, I would think, and be able to come over the border with that. Right?

[nia82]

Going into the birthing center after the baby is born, is that an option? I don't think it was with mine - they said if you have the baby on the highway or something, you need to call 911... Only if hte baby is born in their parking lot can they take care of us, if anywhere else, nope, hospital or not going in at all...

That being said, I liked my birthing center birth, they didn't pressure me into anything and it was very hands-off. I was happy to be there though after all as DD had amniotic fluid in her lungs and their nurse (former NICU) knew exactly what to do to get it out (DD turned blue twice within 4 hours). Ok, if I had planned a homebirth/UC I probably would have read up upon such issues, but I had no idea and felt incredibly helpless and glad that that nurse was there to reassure me it was ok and got DD to throw up all the fluid and be fine...
As for going in after the birht, I would leave baby at home. It's not worth it, you never know how your local hospital reacts... And you only need to get in if the placenta isn't coming/retained or you actually need to be stitched up. I felt held hostage on two occasions with DS (I was bullied into a hospital stay for him at 3 weeks for a slight fever and then he had croup at 18 months and needed some nebulizer treatments but they kept us for 4 days and I really wanted home)... They just tend to keep you which is annoying.

[Lizbiz]

As I said earlier, I had my baby in China unassisted.  We were also worried about the birth certificate/passport issue.  We tried to get a certificate issued by the hospital where we got our prenatal care, but they couldn't do it unless the baby had been born there.  The doctor did write an attestation to my pregnancy and birth though (in English - I assisted :)), which we submitted when we applied for the Citizen Report of Birth Abroad at the US Consulate here.  We also tried to get a birth certificate issued by our city authority here, but they also refused because we had the baby at home.  With the one-child policy, homebirth is pretty much illegal, as the gov't here doesn't want undocumented 2nd children being born at home.  

Each country's political and legal situation is different, but we figured (correctly) that the US Consulate here would issue the CRBA.  We are obviously white, native English speakers with a very plausible (and true) birth story of having our baby at home.  We videotaped the birth, took pictures, and had our friends write attestations to our daughter's birth.  We also told them during our interview that our older son was also born at home when we lived in the US.  It was not complicated, but we were nervous and hopeful that there wouldn't be any problems!  

Our daughter was 1 month old when she had her passport - the process was very fast. 

If you are nervous about being able to access adequate care right after the birth - you may need to think carefully about that - for us I know it would have been very complicated to get our daughter out of the country in case of emergency.  However, I would have worked every contact I had to do so, and I imagine that we would have been able to get her out if push came to shove.  

Good luck!  PM me if you have any questions about the process.  I'm a pro at this point!

[Mama2ChicknLil]

Originally Posted by mamabadger 

I have been present at four "oops" births as a doula. (These were genuine accidents, not secretly planned). For what it is worth, two of them went into the hospital to get checked afterwards, and regretted it. The other two stayed home, and were happy with their decision. 

This really does make me feel so much better about my decision to have a UC. I always thought I'd be home with a midwife during the birth of my baby (this is #1) but I got pregnant a bit sooner than we had anticipated and now paying for that homebirth is impossible. The idea of a hospital birth, howevere, has given me 2 full blown panic attacks already! I have an HMO so I wouldn't even necessarily get the CNM I've been seeing (who is so forceful about doppler and u/s that I don't trust her much anyhow). I have NO risk factors for ANYTHING, am healthy, do yoga, eat well, and am very in tuned with my body, so I feel like going to the hospital would be far more risky than just laying low and doing it at home. Definately NOT going to get checked out after the birth (unless there's a medical need, of course), seems like it would defeat the purpose.

Thanks for all the great stories ladies!

 

Originally Posted by tracymom1 

When I was working at an Ob's office, we had several patients that had routine care with us and then just simply never went to the hospital for the birth. Usually they called a few days after the baby was born and said they had a homebirth and all is well. No big deal.

With my last pregnancy, I sought routine care with a group of hospital-based midwives. Around 30 weeks, I let them know I was considering a homebirth. They just said to keep them informed and that was that. At 37 weeks, I called them and cancelled my last 2 appointments, then called them again after the baby was born. I did go for a 6 week checkup because I was feeling like the postpartum depression was starting again. They were so happy that I got my VBAC on my own terms and in my own house. There were no hard feelings at all.

I don't think there is any reason to go in and get checked out right away unless there is a pressing medical issue. I did bring DD to the doc 2 days after she was born because he is super homebirth friendly and I needed a medical record for her to send off for the birth certificate. He looked at her, asked how breastfeeding was going, said "congratulations" and sent me on my way. I love him.

I would think that if you stay home to birth, then stay home unless there is an emergency. All will work out just fine!!