Home Birth 101

To those of you who didn't pick up on it from the pictures, Elise was born here at home.  No accident, mind you -- very much an intentional decision on our part.  We worked with a midwife out of Bloomington, IN, who attended the birth with her assistant.  For those of you parents who are familiar with Dr. Sears, our midwife was attending VBAC conferences with him in the seventies and has been practicing midwifery for over 20 years.  I was seeing her on a regular prenatal schedule, and each of those visits was scheduled for an hour long.  I was also able to email or call her at any time should I have any questions or concerns...on top of that, I was seeing my OB here in Owensboro (who still doesn't know I've had the baby!) as a "back-up" should anything problematic arise and I need to go to the hospital.  It was incredible to have both appointments to compare: I imagine you can take a pretty accurate guess as to the differences.  Overall, I was impressed by the midwife's knowledge, professionalism, non-anxious presence, and trust in my body as a pregnant mother.  On the other hand, I was irritated by a hospital system that viewed the entire process as a pending medical emergency that required professional intervention.  With each visit, both Wes and I felt more and more secure in our decision.  In the end, we had no regrets, and never questioned the midwife.  

Given the complexities of this delivery, I have suspicions that had I been in the hospital, the entire process would have looked very different and would have been exponentially more negative for me and our family (Don't get me wrong, it was a fairly straightforward labor and delivery, and I was still considered to be a low-risk patient - one of the first things the midwife determined before taking me on as a client).  I'll spare you all those details in such a public form, but would be happy to answer questions!

A few more details: Wyatt was here the entire time - something we wanted.  We did have someone come to take him out to the backyard to play during the last half hour or so.  The midwife and her assistant helped me to get settled after delivery and promptly had everything cleaned up and back to normal.  They headed home about an hour and a half after Elise was born.  It was great to be in our own home at that point, to not have to eat hospital food in an attempt at recovery, to not have nurses coming into my room every whip-stitch, for us all to be able to sleep in our own beds...you get the idea.  Were we to have any more children, we would most definitely repeat the decision to have the baby at home.  However, that's not on the agenda.  :)

~Anna