Choosing Home Birth

While choosing home birth is becoming more and more common, I still definitely get blank stares when it's my answer after being asked, "So where are you delivering?"  Then once the person snaps out of the shock the crickets are typically followed by, "Wow, you are brave..." or something like that.  I'm okay with all of this for a lot of reasons.  First and foremost, I live very intentionally.  When I make a decision, I have done my research and soul searching and once that decision is made, I know it is the right one for me.  Do I think home birth is for everyone?  Not at all.  I think a mother needs to have mental peace and a sense of comfort while she births, especially if she is planning on forgoing medicated pain relief. I understand what comforts a hospital can offer in regard to safety in an emergency situation.  The option to have Baby constantly monitored also brings a lot of ladies comfort.  I respect all of that but those aren't what bring me comfort.  I am fine with intermittent monitoring and Ayden's birth is a perfect example of how I can (and totally will) go to the hospital for medical interventions if they are needed.  And that is what brings me to the most important reason for choosing home birth for myself and my baby:

I want to avoid unnecessary interventions and to protect my right to allow my body to "perform" on nobody's timeline but its own.  Yes, Ayden's labor was LONG but there was never any emergency.  Even once we transported after 33 hours of laboring at home, his heart rate was stellar, there were no signs of him being in any sort of distress and I had no signs of infection (which I am positive was due to my not having any internal exams during my pregnancy or labor). My water broke first thing with Ayden and hospital policy would not have allowed me to labor for that long with my waters broken. In the hospitals around here, I would have been pressured (and probably even tempted) to move things along with interventions which would have probably lead to Ayden going into distress which would have probably lead to an emergency C-section.  Laboring for so long without interventions and then going to get them when they were needed is in the end what kept me from having major abdominal surgery.  I also HATE the idea/chance of showing up to labor and delivery only to get an on call doctor who did not understand/respect my birth plan.  This happened to my sister with her first born and it was a frustrating situation for everyone. I am so grateful that we have medical interventions such as epidurals, pitocin and C-sections when they are used properly but right now, where I live, they are still largely overused and I feel the need to protect myself and my baby from that.  

I should add that unnecessary intervations don't always come from a hospital.  I also don't believe that any "natural" induction methods are a natural thing to do at all.  With my sister's visit coming to a close, there has been some talk about caster oil and such.  Just because something isn't medicine doesn't make it natural.  As much as I want her to be here to meet Logan with the rest of the family (she's never been able to be with us for any of our births and vise versa), I just won't mess with the natural process of labor unless it is medically necessary.

Logan will signal my body when he is ready!

If I am 42+ weeks pregnant and tests show that Logan is in danger of some sort, then I would try "natural induction" techniques in an effort to avoid medical interventions.  I also LOVE pregnancy and this is possibly my last one. I am ready to embrace the changes that Logan will bring with him and I'm ready for the work involved with finding a new normal as a family of 4 but I am not about to rush into it.  I am savoring every last moment that I have been given with this pregnancy and with the normalcy and predictability that we have right now. 

The past few days have been a little entertaining as folks ask me when I'm due and I reply, "____ days ago."  The response is always, "Oh you poor thing, you must be SOOO ready to have it over with" but that could not be further from the truth for me. I suppose right now I am following that old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  A "due date" means nothing to me.  Logan will let us know when he's done cooking and until then, I'm going to continue to enjoy my pregnancy and the normalcy that having him on the inside continues to provide for my family.  Patience is a virtue.

I would also like to document that I have been having a bit of prodromal labor.  There have been two nights, the 27th and the 29th, where I had mild but consistent contractions for hours at a time.  They were 1 minute long and 4-5 minutes apart both times and made me wonder if it was time but they eventually spread out and stopped.  There are a lot of probable causes for prodromal labor but the bottom line is that the contractions are still productive as far as the cervix is concerned.  I am totally fine if my body wants to do this labor thing in installments.  I'm not having internal exams, and don't even believe that how far dilated you are at any given time before active labor has much significance at all, but if my body wants to go ahead and be 4 or 5 cm dilated before I even go into active labor that is fine with me! Haha.

Side note: I am up at 4am writing this post.  I got up to pee and could not go back to sleep because all of this was on my mind.  I am hoping that journaling through my thoughts will quiet my mind and allow me to get another hour or two of sleep.  I'm so glad that tomorrow (or today I suppose...) is going to be a rainy Sunday. I'm bummed that he won't be able to put in a full day at the house but at least David will be home to hang out with Ayden in case I need some extra rest to offset this silly insomnia.  Oh, and he has Monday off too.  Yay for holidays!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Sweet Rewards"

And two years ago today: "The Power Of Play"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

Please take a second to:

 Subscribe via email, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you'll know as soon as a new post is up!

Miss seeing what Ayden is up to everyday?  Follow us on Instagram!

You can find all of the links in the sidebar.