Why I Am Choosing Home Birth

In a nutshell, I was very disappointed with both of my hospital birth experiences. With my first child, my midwife was not able to attend the birth, so I was left with the on-call physician. He had been an OBGYN for thirty years and was completely appalled by my refusal to have a routine episiotomy and utterly ignored my birth plan. Immediately after the birth, when I had been planning to hold and nurse my baby uninterrupted, Caleb was instead taken from me seconds after delivery, (though he was completely healthy) printed, prodded, and handled for nearly twenty minutes while I could only watch from the bed. I kept asking, "Can I have my baby?" and was told, "After we're done." The focus seemed to be much more on the hospital fulfilling protocol and checking off their "To Do" list than encouraging early contact between mother and child. I felt cheated out of the opportunity to spend the first hours of my son's life establishing a strong bond free of unnecessary medical attention and presence.

My second birth was a little closer to my ideal. I genuinely liked my Doctor and she seemed extremely supportive of my views on childbirth. She expertly used oils and stretching techniques in order to prevent tearing and encouraged different pushing positions. What a change from my first birth! However, my complaint with this birth lies chiefly with other hospital staff. During a very intense period of labor a lab employee entered my room and asked me for a blood sample. She's got to be kidding! I thought. She wasn't. There I was, sitting on a birth ball, trying to keep my focus during contractions and progress labor and the woman wanted me to hop up onto the bed and subject myself to her pinching needle. Wasn't I already in enough discomfort? I should mention that I had absolutely NO risk factors during either of my pregnancies and all of my blood levels were normal prior to delivery.

"Is it really necessary?" I hedged.

"Yes, it will just take a minute," she said, slightly irritated. I'm sure she was on a schedule.

"Well, I would prefer to do it here." I said, referring to the birth ball.

"Yes, well I would prefer to do it on the bed." She was getting testy now.

Since I seemed to be without a choice, I got off of the birth ball and into the bed for the blood draw. She attempted to draw blood three times before she gave up on my veins, shrugged, and said "Sorry" before she left the room. It was all for nothing.

To a reader not familiar with a natural childbirth philosophy, my complaints must seem minor. Don't many women get episiotomies and have medical tests performed on them during and after labor and delivery? Yes, many women do. However, I view childbirth as a natural process that God designed my body to complete. I am not opposed to medical treatment and I absolutely believe intervention is needed in certain situations. However, it is my opinion that medications and medical procedures used to assist a birth should be used as necessary and not as a matter of course.

Because I am now pursuing a natural home birth with my third child, I will be keeping a weekly pregnancy journal and publishing it here on AC. I will include information on what it's like to have a midwife, what my prenatal appointments consist of, and what I do to prepare for the birth itself. I hope it will be an interesting read to those of you who are interested in home birth or in reading about the pregnancy experiences of other women.