How/where are you giving birth?

[Guest*]

If you know yet, what kind of birth are you planning?

Feel free to elaborate if the options don't fit exactly.

[Guest*]

I picked "I don't know yet," because I'm torn between unassited or homebirth w/ a midwife.

I had a midwife last time, but she missed it. DH and I loved that it was just us and we want that. We're sure we don't want a midwife at the birth, but I don't know if we should hire one for prenatal care and post-partum care yet.

[jadzia's_mommy]

With DD we went to a birth center. It was a wonderful experience, but the only part I didn't love was getting in the car to come home 6 hours later (even though I only live about 5-10 minutes away). So I'm thinking a home birth this time, with the same midwife. I want to do a water birth again for sure.

[orangefoot]

I'm planning to be at home with midwives who I know. I have birthed with them before but not at home although friends have and say they were very hands off and mostly did nothing but watch and wait, which is what I'm hoping for.

[Wicked_Elphie26]

I had a home waterbirth with a great midwife last time, but she no longer practices, so we're going unassisted.

I'm not sure how I'll feel as the day draws closer, but I may want a doula there to do counterpressure or whatever else I need. DH was really squeamish and needed coaching to keep helping me last time and I just didn't have the energy to keep asking him to push on my back for every contraction. I like the idea of having a woman who has experienced birth there to comfort me, but I definately want to be home and in the water again.

[chalynm]

We're going w/ a birth center and a doula for #2. We did a natural birth wing in a hospital w/ a doula for DD, but we've moved since then, and our options have changed dramatically. I'd rather have a homebirth w/ a midwife and doula, but AL is still in the stone age as far as having babies is concerned. They still actively prosecute midwives , and I don't think a doula would agree to be there w/o a midwife or some other attendant. So we get to drive two hours round trip for every checkup, and of course for the delivery. :

My first choice would actually be an unassisted homebirth, w/ a doula for moral support and running interference (DD's doula was great at running people out of the room), but DH says he doesn't feel confident enough, which hurts a little because it feels like he's saying he doesn't have enough confidence in me, but that's neither here nor there for this thread...

[HomeBirthMommy]

We're planning another homebirth. I will need to find a new midwife b/c mine passed away two years ago. I know I should probably call, but this pregnancy just doesn't feel "real" to me yet. Last time I started out doing my prenatal care with a CNM at the OBs office and switched at 28 weeks to a homebirth midwife. This time I will only do homebirth mw.

[hannahmom]

I wanted a homebirth in the worst way - but in Oct. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes

So it looks like a hospital birth with mw's and a doula but I'm not sure yet. If that is the case I plan to wait until the absolute LAST second to get to the hospital. My hosp birth with dd was less than ideal : and I'm not looking forward to a repeat performance.

[kblue]

I'm the oddball. I'm planning to give birth in birth center with a CNM. I am going to research homebirth through this pregnancy, but I really loved my last experience at the birth center and the midwives I saw were wonderful.

[kalynnsmom]

I live out in the boondocks, so I couldn't find a free standing birth center. So, I'd like to give birth med free at the hospital, with a doula.

[bohemama]

I picked vbac at home. That is what I am planning for, but I am not sure if that will actually happen. I still need to find and interview a midwife. There aren't that many in this area, or if there are I don't know about them. None of the other mommies I know would even think about having a baby at home. All of the hospitals in this area do not allow vbacs : . So, it's either a c-section or a vbac at home. Here's hoping!

[VBMama]

Well, kalynnsmom, you and I are in the same boat. While I would love a homebirth, I also live in a rural area and am not comfortable with the distance to a hospital covered by our insurance if it something were to go wrong. Plus dh is not interested in homebirth. So it's going to be midwives @ hospital for me, drug-free.

[chalynm]

Originally Posted by gsmama2

All of the hospitals in this area do not allow vbacs : . So, it's either a c-section or a vbac at home. Here's hoping!

How awful that someone would try to force you into a having a major procedure that you don't want and probably isn't necessary anyway. Much luck with finding a m/w, so you can deliver like you want.

[thepeach80]

If I am pg, I'll be having my 2nd hospital VBAC.

[thepeach80]

Originally Posted by gsmama2

All of the hospitals in this area do not allow vbacs : . So, it's either a c-section or a vbac at home. Here's hoping!

Can you travel to a hospital if you can't find a midwife? What about staying at home till it's time to push and then going if you need to? They can't refuse to treat you then. There are lots of options if you are finding it hard to find a mw or for some reason, you decide a hospital birth would be better for you and baby sometime during the pgcy. There is a VBAC board in case you haven't been there.

[orangefoot]

Hannahmom

I was cruising reading this afternoon and found this which might interest you
www.aims.org.uk/Journal/Vol12No4/diabetes.htm

It is written by a woman who birthed at home without a continuous drip. This might not be for you but she has noted two references which discuss different ways to deal with diabetes during labour.

I can't access the articles through my uni portals but I imagine that the woman who wrote the article has hard/saved copies and her email is on the article if you wanted to find out more.

[bohemama]

Originally Posted by chalynm

How awful that someone would try to force you into a having a major procedure that you don't want and probably isn't necessary anyway. Much luck with finding a m/w, so you can deliver like you want.

Thank you chalym! It is aweful to be forced into something you don't want. That is exactly what happened last time when I had the c-section. My ob refused to deliver me vaginally even though I was almost complete when they started to wheel me into the OR, and when they made the cut the first thing out of the ob's mouth was "Oh! Baby A is crowning". If I'd known I was that close to delivering while I was waiting for the spinal I would have just pushed. At the time I wasn't in a place mentally where I could stick up for myself and I didn't really have anyone there to do it for me.

[bohemama]

Originally Posted by thepeach80

Can you travel to a hospital if you can't find a midwife? What about staying at home till it's time to push and then going if you need to? They can't refuse to treat you then. There are lots of options if you are finding it hard to find a mw or for some reason, you decide a hospital birth would be better for you and baby sometime during the pgcy. There is a VBAC board in case you haven't been there.

All of the hospitals that are within an hour of our home do not allow vbacs, it's because of the outrageous mal-practice insurance rates in this area (Nevada). I suppose I could drive te 3-4 hours to a hospital in Sacremento, but my insurance would definitely not cover it. I like the idea of waiting until it's time to push to go, but last time when I did have the c-section I was just about ready to push and I was still forced into a section.

I have the # to two mw in this area now, so I'm going to do some calling this week. Wish me luck!

[mum2be]

I really want to do a home waterbirth, but dh is still nervous about it...Any ideas on how I can assure him it's safe and a great experience??

[chalynm]

Originally Posted by mum2be

I really want to do a home waterbirth, but dh is still nervous about it...Any ideas on how I can assure him it's safe and a great experience??

The only thing that always works w/ dh is numbers. W/ dd I knew from the beginning that I wanted as natural a birth as possible. He wasn't real crazy about hospitals, but he wasn't immediately willing to commit to the natural thing because he didn't know anything about it. I had to do a bunch of research to convince him that natural is actually safer w/ a low risk pg.

It's harder w/ #2 though because I want to do a lotus birth, and it's not very well documented right now. There's a lot of personal accounts, but, unfortunately, dh doesn't put much stock in stuff like that. (Actually, I'd really love to have an unassited birth, but what doc is going to do a study on those when, by definition, they're uninvited? I'll probably be brewing #4 or 5 before I can win him over on that one. : )