<p>This was timely! I just wrote a "thank you" note to my midwives, so I can share that. DD2 was born at home about 2 1/2 years ago, VBAC, with Birthstream Midwifery (Tosi, Rachel F-T, and Rachel H.). When I compare my experience this time with my high-intervention, medicalized, surgical first birth. . . well, I really can't, they were just such completely different experiences. My home birth did so much to heal the sadness and regrets from my first birth. And the level of attentive, personalized care I received with the midwives just cannot ever be matched by a typical medical birth practice. Anyhow, my thank you:</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Thank you. . .</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For being willing to meet and talk to me about a normal birth with twins, even though we chose another route.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Tosi, for, "Pizzas are delivered, babies are birthed." </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For spending an hour or more with my whole family every month throughout my pregnancy.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Rachel H., for leading birthing classes focused on homebirth.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For letting me chose to have or not to have prenatal testing, without attempting to shame or guilt me into a particular decision, and for letting me do my own testing whenever possible (weight checks, urine strips). </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For letting me keep our medical charts in my own home, and giving me the originals after her birth.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For focusing on nutrition throughout my pregnancy. For making sure all your moms and their families have meal trees organized for after the baby arrives.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For coming to my home for all my appointments.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For helping to plan and celebrate my Birthing Way with me.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For only doing two vaginal exams during my whole pregnancy and delivery.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For spending at least 10 hours with us on the day she was born. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Rachel, for your quietly supportive and unobtrusive presence when you arrived while I was laboring.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For staying calm and not over-reacting when I bled so much during delivery. I never even realized your concern until after her birth. There's no question in my mind that, had I been in a hospital, I'd have had another surgical birth.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Tosi, for doing science experiments in the kitchen with my 7-year old twins when their baby sister was 2 hours old.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Rachel, for letting my twins help you examine her placenta after birth, and doing it on my bed next to me so I could watch.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For all the laundry you washed after she was born.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For trusting in breastfeeding and never suggesting formula supplements when she lost more than expected after birth.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For letting me and my baby sleep when you arrived for postpartum visits.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For hot rice socks, comfrey leaf compresses, and postpartum "baby blues" teas.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For making sure my husband understood that my only job for the first 6 weeks postpartum was to feed the baby and sleep.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">Tosi, for drying and encapsulating the placenta for me, and for the dried heart-shaped strip of umbilical cord.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For bringing herbal mastitis remedy to my door more than once over the last two years, and for reminding me that I need to REST!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For continuing to nurture my family, opening your home, your trampoline, and your pool to us every other month for potlucks, and for braiding my hair and my daughter's hair at Whole Earth every year.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For putting your love and commitment to women, babies, and birth above any desire to be wealthy. One the day Gillian was born, my mom asked me how much we were paying you, and remarked "They don't make enough!" For ensuring that other women in our community can have a home birth and midwifery care even when they cannot pay. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">For trusting, honoring, and respecting women's' bodies, and helping to normalize low-intervention birth.</span></span></p>
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