Midwife and a Doula

I decided to go the midwife route in January. After having a c-section, I realize that doctors and hospitals in general have decided that it's just easier for them to not allow women to have natural births after such a procedure. The nerve...

My very first prenatal appointment with my OB/GYN in October 2012 was a disaster... really. I felt so discouraged, being pregnant is supposed to be a happy time, stress free. Well, at my first appointment I was told, not advised, but told by my OB/GYN that I was scheduled for another c-section, 2 weeks before the due date.

My response was, doesn't it take 40 weeks to make a baby? Her response was it was safer this way. No advice was given, no OPTIONS, no statistics or likelihood of success just, I'm the doctor and this is how it works attitude.

I was so down, at that point I knew I wasn't happy and would have to do something about it. I told her (my ob/gyn) that I wanted to try and see if my body could go all the way. She said if the baby came naturally before the 2 week early date then she would "consider" it.

Strike one.

I noticed that every time I went, we didn't really communicate with each other, it was just her coming in, looking at a screen and doing like 2 things and "goodbye see you in 1 month". For every visit I went to, there was a "scheduling" of another process. Whether it was blood work (at an offsite location.... headache), or ultrasound appointments for testing of the baby's well being (at an offsite location... more headaches), I felt more fearful than at peace.

Why should I have to worry about all these things, I'm pregnant, let God do what he does!

It was just awful, I felt like I had to take all these tests and had no option to just say no, worrying about the results this month, and ohhh is everything okay next month, are the results positive the month after that...

Strike two.

So at my church I began speaking with a lot of the mothers there, and realized that most of them had experiences with home births. I got testimonies of their experiences, which they all loved and treasured. They loved talking about it! One of the women let me hold a documentary called "The business of being born", it's about midwives and home births (which worldwide by the way are the norm, only in America do the majority of births take place in hospitals)

I was SO encouraged after looking at the dvd series. It came with 3 dvds, and the 2nd part was completely dedicated to VBAC births (Vaginal births after c-section). I was given the statistics, and saw REAL-LIFE women go through the process of having natural births after c-sections.

I learned that midwives are trained to administer births, and OB/GYNs are trained surgeons. Yea, totally made sense to me.

After seeing the success the women had, I was so inspired, this was December 2012.

I kind of made up my mind, but I had one more OB/GYN appointment, so I went, thinking I would break the news to her then.

My doctor came in, and said... It's Nicole right?

Strike three America.

She didn't even know my name, at least come in and say hi Nicole, how are we doing mommy? SOMETHING!

It's Nicole right?

I made up my mind, not only are my rights not being heard or even concerned about, but you don't even know my name, lol

Midwife it is.

So since January 2013 I've been going to my midwife and absolutely love my prenatal care. Each time I go, it's a hands on experience, she knows my name, my babies name, most of the women at my church name, do I have to go on...

Each appointment is like an hour, I have 24/7 hr access to her personal phone number, so if I have questions I can call and she will answer and she encourages me the whole way through.

Of course there are necessary procedures, but I am told my options nonetheless (advised).

And today I just talked to one of the ladies at my church and she's gonna be my doula! I'm so excited!

I'll have a coach by my side and trained midwives who actually see birth as a NATURAL process instead of a medical one.

No needles, no medicine, just my muscles working, my baby coming, and hopefully a pool to help soothe me during labor :)

I'll definitely keep you all updated on my experience.

Lord, I pray that you will have your way, my desire is to have a natural birth, I pray for the health and strength of this baby, I pray that all goes well at home and that I can lean on you for direction and strength.
Thank you for the beautiful process of pregnancy and I pray that you are glorified every step of the way. In Jesus name, AMEN.

:) ;)