YAY Home Birth is a go...

[Trisha]

Well 95% anyway, Im all for it but dh is a little reluctant. He's coming around though and knows that once I set my mind to do something theres no turning back He has agreed to meet with the lay midwife on Tuesday and I just today purchased the HypnoBabies home study course. I was signed up for Bradley classes but he wont go to them.... he says he just went to those classes two years ago for Benjamin (Lamaze but to him its all the same) and he doesn't want to go again. So using the HypnoBabies study will help me help myself.

The funny thing about this is EVERYONE except my own family has been supportive about this! Oops, one other person but she isnt unsupportive, just questioned it and said she never would... Anyway, I think thats helped with convincing Dave that it is a healthy, positive and better way to have a baby. His cousin works in a hospital and said that home is MUCH more sanitary than the hospital and envys my decision LOL, that put him in his place quick. I get more grief about still nursing my two year old toddler than I am with wanting to home birth hahaha.. people, they are so wierd!

Ok so I just wanted to share my news.. Im so anxious to learn everything. BTW, Im Trisha and dh is Dave. Ill be 37 in two weeks (May 14th) and have two children. Jacob is 9 1/2, I lost Isaac at 13 1/2 weeks gestation, Benjamin is nearly 2 and Im having another boy due August 8th. Both boys were born in the hospital and their labors/delivery were awful. If anyone wants birth horror stories with incredible and unnecessary intervention let me know!! Needless to say this next baby will be safely delivered here in my own home

I do wonder one thing though, will I get a birth certificate? Ill be asking my midwife that too but just now thought of it.

Thanks for listening, I cant wait to chat with others who feel the same and get advice and support~ HUGS

[Elyssia]

congratulations!!!!!
i don't know any homebirth mom who has ever regretted her decision to go w/ a midwife and plan for a homebirth
(even those ladies who ended up transporting)
i know i wouldnt want to do it any other way

regarding the birth certificate question:
this is how it is in my state (indiana)
you have to make an appt. and take the baby and dh with you to see an official and fill out paperwork (why can i not remember the name of the office?? dept. of health? arghh, your midwife knows for sure)
when my first daughter was born in 1996, the rule was that you had to do it w/in 72 hours (on workdays) of the birth
but now, here in indiana, it is open
it actually took me a while to get an appt. for my 3 subsequent children
anyway, you go in and show your id and fill out some forms
we wrote down that the birth was attended by dh
(practicing is illegal here for lay midwives)
and then a few details of the birth and pregnancy
the rest was demographic info.
our birth certificates were ready to be picked up very shortly
and they filed the paperwork themselves for the social security cards
those were mailed to us w/in a few weeks
there were basically no questions asked and i never experienced any sort of 'attitude' from anybody about it
i don't know how this varies from state to state tho'
i think there have been threads about this before, maybe you can find it
or post it again
or again, most obviously, your midwife will know

hope you have a great meeting w/ her
i fell in love w/ mine from our first meeting and she has delivered all of my children

[2+twins]

It's the Office of Vital Statistics, most likely (at least it was for us). We live in CA and how you register the birth has depended on the rules of each individual county. Our first birth was much less of a hassle than the 2nd (where they actually wanted to see my prenatal records, u/s picture, photos of me pregnant, etc!). They both needed to see the baby though. Just check with your midwife and she should know who to contact (and then they can give you all the details). I'm pretty sure that you don't have to ever register the birth but if you wait too long (over a year in my county) it gets more complicated. Plus, you don't get that nice tax deduction until you get your baby a social security card, which requires the birth certificate. No wait - I think you can get around that with a baptismal record. Anyway, that's what I know about that.
Have fun at your homebirth - congratulations! It's a wonderful way to go!

[TrishWSU]

Hi Trisha! It's Trish from your Yahoo group. I didn't know you were at MDC. Could have guessed it though. Congrats on you HB decision. It was such an amazing experience for me.

Anyway, my mw filled out all the necessary info and "registered"-don't know if that's the right word- the birth w/ the office of Vital Statistics. We had to pay $17 to the state to get a copy of the birth certificate, but thats normal in WA no matter where you give birth. I guess every state is different, though.

My mw also made a cute handwritten certificate w/ dd's footprints on it b/c the one from the state is a boring computer generated document.

[MamaAllNatural]

That's great news! I think the more he finds out about homebirth (and hospital birth ) the more he'll be happy about the choice to homebirth. My sister's dh was against homebirth when they first got married. Luckily she had educated him enough to be for it by the time she got pregnant. Now he would NEVER want to go to the hospital. You can tell your dh that I had one in the hospital and it was horrible, two at home and it was wonderful. The hospital is not the place to go for a normal, natural birth. It's actually very, very scary!:

[georgia]

Congratulations! May you have the peaceful, empowering, gorgeous and intervention-free homebirth you deserve!