I realized the other day that I have never had a blog while pregnant. I have posted about mommy stuff over at Tales from the Crib, (feel free to browse), but not had a blog during this delicate time.
I thought it might be a good time to write a post advocating for The Midwife.
When I first became pregnant 11 years ago, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to have a baby. I was 22 years old, and I did not have enough life experience to have any preconceived ideas on anything about pregnancy and childbirth. None of my close friends had been through it, none of my siblings had done it, my only point of reference was my mom’s last two children, and their c-section deliveries.
It is perhaps for that reason that c-sections and doctors and hospital stays was on my radar. All I remember is that as soon as I knew I was pregnant, I started spending a lot of time on baby websites trying to learn about what had just happened to me. I soon found myself reading up on Midwives vs. Doctors. Every time I read there was one thing that stood out to me: Doctors have an alarmingly higher cesarean rate than midwives. If my chances of not having a c-section went down with a midwife–sign me up!
Unfortunately, the HMO insurance I was on had many grey areas and I received some misinformation early on in my care, that led me to believe I would have to switch to a midwife late in the game of my pregnancy. At 34 weeks I saw my midwife practice for the first time, and that was not enough time! I did the best I could to get to know each of them (only 2 still stand out in my mind–the two that were there for the delivery), and get into the midwife groove.
At this practice the birthing center was free-standing, and unless I had complications of some sort, I had to commit to giving birth there. I had some fear about that, but I decided to trust in the midwives. In the end, I had to be admitted to the hospital from the start because I was induced a few weeks past my original due date, but thankfully my midwives had privileges there and still delivered me.
I wanted to give birth without the epidural, but since not having pain medication was not my main reason for choosing a midwife (remember, I did NOT want to be cut open), I ended up with the epidural for my first birth. Now that I am 10 years past that experience and have since read Ina May’s Childbirth, I know exactly what went wrong in that room that caused me to get that epidural, and I wish I could do it over again. However, I do think that having a midwife prevented a c-section for me, because my baby’s heart rate was dipping for every contraction by the time we got to the pushing, and the midwife worked with me to find (a ridiculous I might add) position to push in, and get that baby out the way she was meant to come out! For that, I am so grateful.
