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?

Hi there,

I am taking the lemons of my daughter's sleepless first year and making lemonade. I am conducting a research study about babies/children and sleep. If you have a child age 5 and under, please take my survey. Data will be compiled and (hopefully) published in a book. Click on or paste the link below into your browser.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=396721222701

Thank you for your support!

I haven't been on here in a long while...just to recap...I'm a poet with a few little publications here and there, dabbling in fiction and creative nonfiction here and there, got my MFA last spring, teaching English at a JC, have a son who is 8 mo's, husband is a musician...blah blah blah.

Anyway, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to meet some creative mamas IRL. Anybody live near Los Angeles? I'm in Long Beach and I would be willing to drive a little ways to meet up with some people.