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Once a UC always UC? - Page 2

post #21 of 37
9/22/05 at 10:40am
I havent had an UC yet but for me I dont think I could ever have a midwife again (I will be one by the time I have another baby though lol) but in saying that it would depend on that baby, and that pregnancy... I would follow my instincts, so I would pretty much only sidestep a UC if it was very needed IUKWIM
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post #22 of 37
9/22/05 at 12:46pm
I had a UC with #3 and a mw hb with #4. I would definetly UC again with my next babe. While my mw's didn't interfer with my birth (and I had as close to a UC as one can have with 2 mw's and a student present) I would have preferred for them to leave upon babes arrival but they were required to stay 2 hours and do all the baby and mommy checks. I just wanted to be left alone, me and my family to bond with our new member.

Unless we are still stationed here when we have our next babe I will UC. If we are stationed here I am not sure what we will do. I guess it would depend on DH's new command as the one he currently has is what prevented us from UC this time.
post #23 of 37
9/23/05 at 6:30pm
I never wanted a UC...but the circumstances at the time lead me to UC as it was my only safe option. I will have a midwife for any future births. Don't get me wrong...my UC was wonderful and completed me in such a way that I don't even need to have another baby to "get it right". It was perfect and I think of it everyday.
post #24 of 37
9/24/05 at 11:19pm
I will definately have any subsequent babies unassissted. I wrote that in my UC birth story, even. :LOL There is no way that UC can be beat, in my mind. It was absolutely perfect. I really don't think I will ever have to use a MW or doc for anything, other than prenatal appointments.
post #25 of 37
9/25/05 at 12:36am
My mom had a UC for #1, 2, 3, 4,

then she went to the hospital for #5, a breech...

then she sought out a homebirth doctor who never showed up for #6, 7, 8, and 9.

.
post #26 of 37
9/26/05 at 12:09pm
I feel the opposite that marsupialmom does :LOL I have had a solo UC and then a couples birth and the couples birth was wonderful, but I preferred the solo UC a bit more. Call me a selfish birth hog :LOL

My last UC I had quite a bit of blood loss. I recuperated but it took me a week. Even still I feel and felt at the time comfortable enough to handle myself and do whatever I felt the immediate urge to. I feel a birth attendant would have gone into a flurry, inject me with a shot of pit probably and talk me into transferring. I feel that because of UC I calmly dealt with it and all was well in the end.

Having birth attendants was always detrimental to my birthing the way I needed to, and detrimental to the health of my children. If I had more children, I woudln't be subjecting myself to "I might have this or I could have that" so I wouldn't be like "well baby is X so maybe I should consider Y+Z" I feel if something were terribly wrong I'd know and go from there. I know of all of the things I am NOT afraid of, I guess I'm just very aware of what my comfort zones are.
post #27 of 37
10/6/05 at 7:26pm
Quote:
My last UC I had quite a bit of blood loss. I recuperated but it took me a week.
How did you stop the bleeding? My friend just had her twins at home and hemmoraged very badly and the midwife gave her 2 shots of pitocin. What are other natural options to stop the bleeding?
post #28 of 37
10/6/05 at 7:54pm
I just had a "planned unplanned" UC on Sept 30th. We started out planning a homebirth through the birthing center where our DS was born. The new midwife was too mainstream though and we changed to a really cool midwife when I was about 32 or so weeks along. UC was in my mind from the very beginning of the pregnancy. I didn't tell the midwife directly that I wanted to call her at the last minute, but I did say that I thought it would go very fast. And it did! 1 hr and 45 minutes of intense labor! I had thought of having no midwife DH didn't feel comfortable with it at all. We decided together to have a midwife and that we'd call at the "last minute" (like when I was pushing or when the baby was already out). That way there was still the option to call if my intuition said maybe she'd be needed.

I would definitely do it again. Being at home with no one (except my 2 yr old watching Sponge Bob in the other room and occassionally checking in on me) I was really able to be in touch with myself and the baby at a level not at all possible if I'd had others there. My DH got there 20 minutes before Piper was born and I had to tell him to not touch me or talk to me because if he did it made my already intense and painful contractions a bit harder to handle. If I'd had a midwife present I don't think I could have reached the primal state I did that just allowed the birth to flow naturally. It was wonderful having DH there though once he knew to let me be. It was awesome to have him catch Piper, and he is as ecstatic about the experience as I am.

Although part of me feels, "Gosh, I'm shelling out $2000 for what now?" I did like having a midwife as a "just in case" and also to come and check us out after the birth, etc. My midwife is so laid back I have never felt any pressure from her with prenatal appointments to do anything I didn't feel comfortable with.

I'm not sure if we will be having more babies. It is up for debate. But if so UC, unless intuition tells me otherwise.
post #29 of 37
10/6/05 at 8:41pm
There are no guarantees in life, but I am glad you felt confident enough to do UC!
post #30 of 37
10/6/05 at 9:30pm
we have had such wonderful experiances with UC that it was a non-issue for us with each pg. we love the freedom of being our own midwife just as we prefer to be our own doctor when it comes to other health issues. yes, after our first birth it was always a UC for us.
post #31 of 37
10/6/05 at 10:30pm
i had my first mw assisted, and i think i will have my next with a mw and student too, but ONLY if it can be "uc style", meaning no vitals checks, no talking to me, no touching the baby AT ALL, just sitting quietly on the other side of the room, taking heart tones occasionally.

i want them there to clean up after the birth, to smooth the way if i need to transfer, and because i feel that it is really important to have a student at my birth because midwifery students need to see and learn about UC style birthing. i think my generation of mw are being taught a higher level of intervention than is necessary, partly because of our law and partly just because. i want to do my part to change that. plus i get a kick out of "teaching" people lol.

it is really important to me that no one talks to me or touches the baby besides dh (and my sister if she is there). the only part of my mw assisted birth that really bugs me now is that people were talking to me while i was pushing and they rubbed down my baby right after he was born. yuck.
post #32 of 37
10/9/05 at 12:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nancymom
How did you stop the bleeding? My friend just had her twins at home and hemmoraged very badly and the midwife gave her 2 shots of pitocin. What are other natural options to stop the bleeding?
While I haven't looked too far into why I bled so much (I might if I get pregnant again) - the first thing I did was to lay down and put my feet up so that they were over my head. I then knew I had to have baby try to nurse. If she didnt' latch on like she did, I would have gone to the next level and taken a bite of placenta (Maternal side) . A fell asleep and woke up and chugged down a great deal of water. It was after this I passed a good sized clot and bleeding literally ceased to a halt (aside from normal post partum flow afterwards)

And that was all I did. I didn't have any herbs on hand, and I'm not sure how I would feel about having them around if there's a next time. SOrry to have missed your question until just now. : I've heard different herbs (can'
/t think of any names lol), eating a bit of placenta and nipple stimulation can help clamp the uterus down.
post #33 of 37
10/17/05 at 8:45pm

Once a UC always a UC?

I had a hospital birth for #1, UC for #2, and car birth for #3. I had a mw during that pregnancy, but when my water released 7 days before labor began, my midwife (German) had to release *me* from her care, so I was going to wait until the last minute and go to the military hospital, birth and go back home.

I chose to have a mw mostly because #2 (who is 21 years old now) was a severe shoulder dystocia and required EMS assist to get going - horrifying experience and I definitely got scared. Because my former husband was in the military, they flipped out, too, and the CPS-equivalent (in Tacoma, WA) did come and investigate our family, but we were exonerated.

With #3, I labored solo - and LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD it. I do *not* like to be touched in labor, or told what to do, and I learned that during the first two babies' births. Aimee was a car baby, we stayed at the hospital for 3 hours and went home, without checking out AMA (important to my former husband).

(A tiny aside: because I *did* birth in the car, at the foot of labor & delivery... because I negotiated an incredible birth plan with all parties involved, unheard of at the time... because LLL friends who'd just had babies watched from the day room... because I was known at the hospital as a doula [even though there was no such word or thing at the time]... because I taught childbirth classes and was a LLL leader in the community... word spread like wildfire in childbirth classes and mom's support groups and the woman I was "destined" to meet came to a LLL meeting 2 days after Aimee was born *specifically* to meet me (her cb teacher raved about my experience) so I could help her choreograph her perfect birth. She and I have been partners for 20 years now. :LOL So, while it might not have been my Perfect Birth, there were MANY aspects at play I never could have anticipated when I chose a midwife earlier in the pregnancy.)

I learned a lot from my own births, but continue learning. Always learning.

Barbara E. Herrera, LM, CPM
post #34 of 37
10/24/05 at 10:30pm
Both of my children were planned UP/UCs. All of our children will be.
post #35 of 37
10/29/05 at 6:32pm
My last (fourth) baby was UC (after two hospital births and a midwife-present homebirth). I would absolutely assume UC would be our default for future babies, but I would also evaluate each pregnancy/birth situation separately and make my decision anew each time based on circumstances. Does that make sense? So it's possible that I might do something different if I felt I needed professional support, but I would assume I would not until the situation indicated otherwise.

But I'm done with babies, now (DH was snipped last May) and so all I can do is feel good that at least one of my babies was born in the way that spoke my heart.
post #36 of 37
11/3/05 at 8:18pm
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post #37 of 37
11/3/05 at 9:30pm
1-4 were hospital, 5th hb w/ mw. My 6th was a UC, my 7th was a hb w/ a mw. We uced because we had moved from our mw and could not find one we were comfortable with. It was a great experience that I wouldn't change for all the world. But we had shoulder dystocia (after watching the video again it was 8 or more mins before his body was born) not to mention he was 13 lbs. We moved back and were able to hire our mw again. She is as hands off or hands on as each client needs her to be. I remember w/ my first hb she and her dd (her assistant) were right there for me, this last time I had to ask them to check me to please make sure I was in labor. In hindsight I really believe we were led back to her. I had gestational diabetes and she really kept me in line during the pregnancy. We also had a severe case of shoulder dystocia, the worst she had ever seen. Emma was very floppy and not breathing at all, her 1 minute apgar wasn't even a 1. My mw and her dd were wonderful, they did not for one minute have to stop and think "what do we do now" they got her going and she is a happy and healthy 6 month old now.

I really don't believe that dh could have handled that situation and I truely feel that we may not have Emma now if we had UCed.

http://www.texas-midwife.com/garcia2.htm