Deciding on a midwife...

We have some exciting news to share, ok, well at least exciting for us! I love writing about certain things in our family journey on here because it will be so nice to look back and read it one day PLUS I have been able to use it already many times when I forgot a date or when something happened and I just come back to my old blogs and read it and find out! It’s very helpful! I still need to make a book from all the blog posts from isaac’s adoption journey though, which will be a wonderful thing to have to show him when he is older!

Anyways, after LOTS of research, prayer, and talking with friends and medical professionals, we have decided to switch from our local OB’s office to a midwife. There are two midwives we will be working with who work with Women’s Contemporary Health-care near Polaris, so it’s about a 45ish minute drive to their office from our home. SIDE NOTE: We LOVED our OB’s office and are not switching b/c of anything wrong they or the nurses did, we just wanted a more natural approach to labor with birthing tubs in the hospital, which our local hospital did not have but this new hospital we are going to does have and they do cater to natural births.

I also want to say I do not mind what other people chose for their births and would never judge, this is just us and what we would love to do. I know there are many choices out there and we will respect all of them with all my friends and family!

I’m the kind of person that if I was in perfect health and didn’t have a history of hemorrhage I would LOVE to try a home water birth BUT with my history, Jim and I feel its best for me to be in a hospital incase of complications and that is why we chose our new midwive’s office because it’s the best of both worlds. The office has two midwives and two OB’s and we will only see the midwives unless during pregnancy or labor we would develop high-risk complications, then the OB’s would step in and help. I love this because I get the chance for a more natural approach with the midwives but I get the comfort knowing that if something does happen, they have OB’s and we will be in a great hospital to help with those things. We will deliver at a hospital close to their office and about an hour away from our home. We’ve had a few friends deliver here and what I love about this hospital is they have three birthing rooms with labor tubs, which really helps with relaxing during labor and they seem to cater more to you if your trying to achieve natural birth than most other hospitals around us!

I LOVED the midwife I met on Wednesday and the next appointment, which is coming up on the 24th, I get to meet the other one and I have heard only amazing things about both of them! She shared information with me during our meeting and then I asked her lots of questions and I cannot say enough great things about how our meeting went and how comfortable and happy I feel switching to them!

Here are just a few of the answers she gave me to some of my questions, (TMI for men probably)

• I will not get internally checked until 40 weeks and at the hospital during labor she hopes to only check me when I get there and right before pushing if all goes well. (Less checks mean less chance of infection)
• She has attended over 150 births and the other midwife whom i have not met yet has attended over 300-400 births.
• She said if I go past 40 weeks, at the 41st appointment they will do tests/ultrasound to make for sure baby is good and fluids are good and if all is ok let me go another week and then at 42 weeks talk induction. (I like how they will try and let things run their course first before stepping in with intervention)
• She said they will teach us stretching exercises for the perineum area to prevent tearing and they use massage and warm compresses during labor to help stretch it so it doesn't tear too.(Love that they don’t rush to do episiotomy and do things to help you not tear)
• She told me that with me being overweight I need to only gain 10-15 pounds so that is something I really need to start watching!
• I will have the same amount of prenatal appointments with them as I would have with my OB, which makes me happy!
• I loved finding out that she or the other midwife will spend all the time with us in labor unlike OB's that basically come in just when the baby is about to pop out. She mentioned how if I ask for an epidural, she will try and push me first and help me get past it, which I am so thankful for!
• She said unless complications I wont have to have an IV...YAY....BUT she said with my history of a hemorrhage after one of my miscarriages, she wants to put a hep-lock port in so that incase I would hemorrhage, she will have medicines ready to help stop it and can put it in the port right away, which makes me feel safe! With not having to have an IV, I can be free to walk and move around the room in different positions to help with the labor.
• I will not be able to deliver in the tub at the hospital b/c of my history of hemorrhage, she would rather have me out of it BUT I will be able to at least labor in the tub.

She was so great to say how they will work with me through the labor and help push me a little to get past the hard parts where I might ask for an epidural but she said if I really want it, they don’t mind giving it to me and will do what I want and not think differently of me. That’s nice to hear because I seriously want to try my best to make it all the way but its good to know that if I go as far as I feel I can go and even after a little pushing/help from her, I still feel I need an epidural, that they will give it to me no problem! I truly hope I can do it without it though, I know I may be weird but I want to experience natural childbirth and feel the accomplishment of going through it and pushing the baby out. I’ve heard women say after doing it naturally that they feel they can do anything after natural child-birth and women get back on their feet and heel so much faster that way too!

We talked about so much more and I just feel so comfortable and excited now, hoping no complications arise so that I can hopefully experience a natural childbirth! There are so many things we are learning and that I am excited about. I won’t share them all on here with you all as some of it would be boring to you and some would just be a little bit too personal but we were excited and just wanted to share that we will be trying the whole midwife natural approach to this in a great hospital (St. Ann’s) and we are just thrilled. We will start our natural birthing classes (Bradley Method) in July!

Here are some great links I have found helpful (incase your interested)...

Natural birthing class: http://www.bradleybirth.com/
To learn more about Midwifery: http://www.mymidwife.org/
Another neat site: http://www.mybestbirth.com/

Love,