Why I Chose a Home Birth
I have been asked by special request to share my home birth experience, so here you go. I suppose growing up I always planned to have a natural childbirth in the hospital because that's the way my mom did it when she had all 4 of us. And if my mom can handle it, so can I, right?
I recall the first time I really heard of a midwife was on the plane on the way to Paraguay for a mission trip. There was a simply-dressed girl with a bun and she was attending midwifery school in Kentucky. I think I pretended like I knew exactly what she was talking about (I was finished with my junior year of college, after all). And I had to think in my head about the spelling of "midwifery", because it is pronounced with a short 'i' sound as opposed to the long 'i' in midwife.
Shortly after that trip to Paraguay, I got engaged to my sweet husband, Philip. My soon-to-be sister-in-law became pregnant with her first child around that same time. I was still in my senior year at Asbury and I was totally oblivious about childbirth and rearing children. However, Philip's mom, Felicia and I would talk on the phone alot during this time, because she lived in Texas and I lived in Kentucky. (Funny, that's reversed now, 7 yrs later.) So Felicia told me all about the pregnancy, and how my sister-in-law had a midwife and how she was planning to have the baby at home. I had truly never even heard of a modern person planning to give birth at home up to that point in my life, and I listened with interest to Felicia's telling of her experience.
The midwife's office was in her home and a peaceful, calm childbirth was a central theme to the homebirth I heard about. Also, Felicia told me that after the baby is born, the new mother gets to bathe him in a relaxing herbal bath. That is one of the main things that sticks out in my memory that was very appealing to me about home birth.
So, when Philip and I were ready to get pregnant, I read two books called "Homebirth," one by Sheila Kitzinger and another that I can't find on Amazon. Both were very intriguing to me and presented many advantages to homebirth and of course, since they were promoting homebirth, many disadvantages to hospital birth. A prevalent theme in many of the homebirth books is that when you allow a woman's body to proceed naturally with something it was created by God to do, 99% (my statistic, although my midwife's experiences back it up) of the time, no medical intervention is necessary. Many of the arguments against hospital birth in these books present research and anecdotal evidence that one hospital intervention leads to another and that is where birthing emergencies occur.
I got pregnant with Abraham right away and chose a midwife because I had confidence that I could have a natural childbirth with God's help, and that rather than fight against doctor and hospital interventions while I'm trying to have a baby, I would just have the baby at home with a midwife. Having a hospital within 3 minutes driving time gives us confidence that if some emergency were to occur at home, we could be there by the time they could admit me anyway.
The midwife I chose online from reading profiles on the Association of Texas Midwives website happened to be the same one my sis-in-law used. When I met her for our hiring interview, I was sure she was the one because she is the embodiment of God's peace. My midwife has delivered thousands of babies, and has only had to have medical intervention a few times. That was a pretty good record in my mind. Also, during the many appointments leading up to the birth, if anything appears to be irregular, they won't deliver at home. So all of these factors led me to choose a home birth for both of my children. In my next post, I'll tell you about the experience of delivering my children at home in my bedroom.
I recall the first time I really heard of a midwife was on the plane on the way to Paraguay for a mission trip. There was a simply-dressed girl with a bun and she was attending midwifery school in Kentucky. I think I pretended like I knew exactly what she was talking about (I was finished with my junior year of college, after all). And I had to think in my head about the spelling of "midwifery", because it is pronounced with a short 'i' sound as opposed to the long 'i' in midwife.
Shortly after that trip to Paraguay, I got engaged to my sweet husband, Philip. My soon-to-be sister-in-law became pregnant with her first child around that same time. I was still in my senior year at Asbury and I was totally oblivious about childbirth and rearing children. However, Philip's mom, Felicia and I would talk on the phone alot during this time, because she lived in Texas and I lived in Kentucky. (Funny, that's reversed now, 7 yrs later.) So Felicia told me all about the pregnancy, and how my sister-in-law had a midwife and how she was planning to have the baby at home. I had truly never even heard of a modern person planning to give birth at home up to that point in my life, and I listened with interest to Felicia's telling of her experience.
The midwife's office was in her home and a peaceful, calm childbirth was a central theme to the homebirth I heard about. Also, Felicia told me that after the baby is born, the new mother gets to bathe him in a relaxing herbal bath. That is one of the main things that sticks out in my memory that was very appealing to me about home birth.
So, when Philip and I were ready to get pregnant, I read two books called "Homebirth," one by Sheila Kitzinger and another that I can't find on Amazon. Both were very intriguing to me and presented many advantages to homebirth and of course, since they were promoting homebirth, many disadvantages to hospital birth. A prevalent theme in many of the homebirth books is that when you allow a woman's body to proceed naturally with something it was created by God to do, 99% (my statistic, although my midwife's experiences back it up) of the time, no medical intervention is necessary. Many of the arguments against hospital birth in these books present research and anecdotal evidence that one hospital intervention leads to another and that is where birthing emergencies occur.
I got pregnant with Abraham right away and chose a midwife because I had confidence that I could have a natural childbirth with God's help, and that rather than fight against doctor and hospital interventions while I'm trying to have a baby, I would just have the baby at home with a midwife. Having a hospital within 3 minutes driving time gives us confidence that if some emergency were to occur at home, we could be there by the time they could admit me anyway.
The midwife I chose online from reading profiles on the Association of Texas Midwives website happened to be the same one my sis-in-law used. When I met her for our hiring interview, I was sure she was the one because she is the embodiment of God's peace. My midwife has delivered thousands of babies, and has only had to have medical intervention a few times. That was a pretty good record in my mind. Also, during the many appointments leading up to the birth, if anything appears to be irregular, they won't deliver at home. So all of these factors led me to choose a home birth for both of my children. In my next post, I'll tell you about the experience of delivering my children at home in my bedroom.
posted by Holly Putnam | 7:14 PM
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