home · books · forums · news feeds · polls · chat · search · my account
Home » forums » Doing It

i'm torn

ok, so i'm about 15-16 weeks along right now. i've been pretty adament from the beginning that i wanted a home birth. I HATE hospitals. Hospitals are places some people go when they are sick and whatnot. i'm not sick. i have been seeing a midwife who works with the hospital, but she is not allowed to do homebirths. I talked to a gentleman who can do homebirths but lives about 90 min. away from me. Also, since i'm on medicaid, my hospital birth would be totally covered whereas if i went with the home midewife, i'd be paying about $4000, which i can't really afford. i was looking into the idea of an unassisted birth. I'm healthy and am very confident in a woman's ability and body to give birth themselves. does anyone have any advice for me?
also, my mom and my partner were not too keen on the homebirth, because they saw it as an unnecessary risk and see the hospital as a 'safe' place. after meeting with the home midwife, my partner was more supportive, but my mom still has her doubts. if they hear i'm looking into a homebirth unassisted, i think they might flip their lids.

By anarchohippypunk at 08/20/2007 - 3:34pm | Doing It | login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

My last two were born in a

My last two were born in a birthing center with transport to a hospital easily available (5 minutes). Wonderful experience with my midwives.

If you'd like to talk to someone who has actually done it, check out lafemmedesfemmes.livejournal.com and contact the owner of the journal -- her last birth was an unassisted homebirth.

Do your research and have an honest, heart-to-heart talk with your partner. Can you tackle this if you don't have his full support? And explore the midwife in the hospital option. Does she have the authority to throw nurses and doctors out of the room if they come in? Can she control how long you're in the hospital? Will you have to cooperate with hospital nursery procedures? Can you go visit the hospital and see a birthing room and tour the maternity ward? (If you can, do. Gaining a lot of familiarity with my birthing center really upped my comfort level.)

All my best to you and your baby. I hope you have as happy and easy a birthing experience as I did my last two times. Hurty, and hard work, but happy.

By zannaL at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 2:35am | login or register to post comments

My last birth was with a

My last birth was with a nurse-midwife in a hospital (also for insurance reasons) and it was a truly lovely experience. The birth story is surely posted somewhere on here. As long as you and the midwife are on the same page and have things all planned and signed on the birth plan and she can "manage" the hospital staff, it can be fine and great. I am, incidentally, glad I didn't go the unassisted way as my daughter's cord broke at birth and I wouldn't have known how to clamp it to keep her from bleeding out. With the midwife present, though, it was a non-issue.

By Lone Star Ma at Tue, 08/21/2007 - 4:17am | login or register to post comments