Looking into homebirth!

[ma_Donna]

Bolstered by a marvelous ultrasound last week where everything just looked perfect, I'm doing some research into having a homebirth.

I'm currently seeing a practice of Certified Nurse Midwives at a birth center. Different practice, but same certifications as Noah's birth attendant. Although we risked out of the birth center (PROM w/ no contractions) my midwife was my medical practitioner throughout and when Noah was born the nurses were his medical practitioner.

I think it's for insurance reasons, but CNM's do not do homebirths.

The state licenses Direct Entry Midwives. There's only a handful, looks like one has a birth center, I know one has a relationship with the birth center I'm seeing right now, but most do home births. The catch is that if I end up at the hospital they are NOT my medical care provider. I talked to one DEM and she said you come under the care of an OB, either one she knows or whomever is on call. That doesn't sit quite right with me, just too many question marks on how things would unfold without having a firm relationship with an OB ahead of time.

So I just made a consult appointment with the OB I saw when my first pregnancy ended in m/c. She was the OB who consulted with my previous midwive's practice and actually had a scrape with the state medical board last summer because she wasn't doing 'enough' c-sections!!

I really didn't even consider the scenario of a hospital birth with Noah and now that I know things are different with a DEM than a CNM. I really don't have a lot of questions about what will happen at a homebirth because it's more 'in control' of me and the baby.

It's certainly taking a little effort to research this (thank goodness Anchorage is big enough to have good options and small enough to not have too many), but as my natrualpathic dr said, who you choose as your birth attendant has a lot to do with how your birth will go.

Oh, hoping for a water birth either way :D

[Max'sMama]

Good luck making a decision. In our state, hospital based CNM's are the only 'legal' mw's. I only know of one out of hospital legal CNM and she has a birth center. I guess much of how you decide is based on what you are ultimately comfortable with. We are planning a homebirth for child #2, and I know that for me, if I transfer, the MW is out of the picture and I am stuck with a 'strange/new/unknown' OB.

Unfortunately, when I had ds, the dr that attended the delivery was one I had met one time, and so, even though I had been with the practice for the entire pregnancy, I had NO relationship w/ that particular OB.

This was one factor that helped me feel even more comfortable with the idea of not having an OB or relationship with an OB. I figured if I went with an OB/Gyn practice I would just get whomever is on call anyway. So I am ok with the idea that if a transfer from home to hospital is inevitable, I won't know the doc, since I probably wouldn't know them well anyway.

I agree with your naturapath that who you decide to go with can really make a difference in the course of your birth. Good luck with your decision!