C and I went to see a play this weekend called BOLD: Birth on Labor Day. We had always figured on the full spa-day labor, with episiotomies and epidurals and not the faintest sight of blood. After the play, and reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and joining up with the Mothering.com crowd, I'm really thinking about having this baby at home. I'll be 38 when the baby comes, but I'm fit and hearty and one of this irritatingly robust people with nary a stress nor strain. It fits with my feminist, anti-western-med, rebellious and questioning side. Stats show that having a baby at home is actually safer than having a baby at the hospital, and doulas have the same placating effect that epidurals do, with far fewer complications.
I'm hitting up on my own fear of other's opinions, though. My mom was one of those martini and cigarette prenatals, with no memory of any of our (four) births, and very little focus on anything other than her own comfort. Her mom was actually put under for all five births, and she was perfectly happy for the drugs. My sister and sister in law both had hospital births with epidurals and the works, but what I mostly noticed was that the babies couldn't stay with them in the room for more than a few minutes at a time until they went home and they were totally at the mercy of the nurse's personality and moods.
All these folks may think I'm crazy for doing this at home, and I don't want their fears to get to me in these intervening months. I think I may just keep it to myself for a month or two while I do my research and interview midwives.
It's funny how a little bit of reading can change your whole plan! We're trying for a low-intervention hospital birth with a doula present. I think keeping it private for a while is a good idea, though - people get very, very defensive when it comes to childbirth, and you just don't need to hear that while trying to make your own choices!
Posted by: Beth | September 06, 2006 at 08:47 AM