I spent most of today editing a video. Originally it was supposed to be a pregnancy, birth, and beyond video, set to music with no dialogue. But it got long and I liked a lot of the dialogue, so this is just a birth video. I might change the first dialogue box eventually. The midwives didn’t actually show up until about 10:20, and the first clip of the video is only about 25 minutes before the baby comes, just to give an idea of how quickly it went. I’m going to work on another one that would be more along my original idea too, and will be a little more censored. This particular one has nudity, yelling, etc. Watch at your own risk.

(You need a browser that supports html5 to see this. So basically not Internet Explorer.)

Related posts:

1. There’s really something there!
2. Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey
3. She’s here!

We went to try and lay down, but though the contractions stayed quite far apart, they were suddenly quite intense again after my water breaking and so we didn’t actually sleep, but we dozed for an hour or so until Meredith woke up at 9 (she had slept the whole time until this point, straight through the night except for stirring once and was settled easily back to sleep by Kris!). We got up and the contractions started again almost immediately. Kris called the midwife to ask her if it was okay to use the same water that had been in the pool all night now that my water was broken, and she said it was fine. I was having a contraction while he was on the phone and she asked if she should come. I said something along the lines of “I don’t care, whatever you want” lol. Kris emptied the pool a bit so he could reheat the water, and meanwhile my contractions were quickly becoming more and more intense. I’m not sure when they started coming right on top of the other but it wasn’t long afterwards. I couldn’t believe how fast it went from every 8 minutes to transition. And it was very intense/painful. Meredith’s labour had been painful, but in a different way. Lots of back labour, but not nearly so intense. Probably because it was longer. I was very loud, way louder than with Meredith. I’m sure the neighbours heard lol.

Through this Meredith was standing by the pool feeding me frozen grapes (thanks to Paxye for this idea, they were the perfect labour food), stroking and kissing my head, and doing her own thing quietly. She apparently asked Kris to watch a movie at one point and he told her I didn’t want the TV on and she said “oh ok Daddy” and went and found something else to do.

I’m not sure what time it was when the midwife and her student showed up, but I was very close to pushing. The time was actually kind of perfect as Kris and I had had all night to do our own thing together, but when it got really intense and difficult for me (and just when he was wondering how he was going to do things like reheat the pool when I refused to let go of his hand), they showed up. The midwife listened to a few contractions and commented that it sounded like there was a little lip of cervix blocking the baby. I have no idea how she would know that from listening to me! Anyway, she asked if I wanted her to check and potentially hold it out of the way a bit. She did mention that she certainly didn’t have to and it would get out of the way on it’s own if she left it. I had originally told her I didn’t want to be checked at all, but at this point I was feeling like I wasn’t coping very well and I remembered how much I enjoyed pushing with Meredith. I asked her if she did that if it meant I would push sooner and she said yes, probably, and I was like “do it, I want to push!” (I also made her reassure me that she’d stop immediately if it hurt or I wanted her to, which of course she did.) It ended up making the next contraction better and there was a lip, that the head managed to slip past.

The contractions really slowed down at this point, but when they came they were intense. I was yelling very loudly with each one and saying things like “I don’t want to do this anymore”. I had made clear how much I was looking forward to pushing, but when the pushing started I hated it this time for some reason. I really enjoyed pushing with Meredith. Anyway, once I started feeling pushy there was no stopping me lol. I wanted her out of there. I only pushed for 9 minutes and then she burst into the world and Kris caught her and put her on my chest. Meredith came over to check her out and then climbed into the pool with us. We sat and rested for a few minutes and then checked and saw that Meredith had a little sister.

My only real regret about the whole thing is that the water had got cool in that last little bit and I’d been too out of it to remember to mention it and they hadn’t noticed. Her cord was a little short. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the water was nice and warm but because it was so cold I was having a hard time keeping her out of the water enough that we could wrap her. I also couldn’t easily have gotten out with the cord still attached. She was nice and pink and noisy when she first popped out but after about 10 minutes in the tub she had gotten quite quiet and was turning a bit blue. We tried to wrap her up on my chest but I just couldn’t keep her out of the cool water and agreed to cut the cord. I had wanted to wait until the placenta came out to cut it but it had been 15 minutes at this point so I agreed that I was okay cutting it a little sooner. Meredith ended up being the one to cut it, and we tied it off with a braided tie I had made (I had actually made two just in case and am wearing the other around my wrist now ).

They took her while I got out and decided to give her a little puff of room air, which worried me a bit seeing them put the little mask on her, but the midwife assured me it was mostly precaution and that she was just fine. She pinked up really quickly with the air and started squalling. Because I hadn’t pushed for long she was still a tad gurgly but nothing that concerned the midwives at all. I didn’t want the oxytocin shot, and at about a half hour after she was born my placenta hadn’t come out. I was lying on my back with Meredith nursing and holding the baby on the other arm, so she asked if I was willing to squat or change position to see if gravity would help the placenta out at all. I don’t think she was worried about it yet but wanted to be proactive. The placenta came out pretty quickly after I changed positions. Kris passed her back to me and she started rooting and latched on and nursed like a pro. I actually am amazed at how well she nurses; her latch is pretty much perfect already and she’s got a powerful little suck. I’m kind of glad I’m used to a toddler nursing already lol.

Meredith was fascinated by the placenta and the midwife showed her how it worked and how the cord attached to the baby (and where). About an hour after she was born they weighed and measured her. We all guessed how much she would weigh and everyone else was guessing under 7 pounds. I guessed 7lb 6oz. She ended up being 7lb 8oz so I was pretty close. (Maybe even right on if we had weighed her before she nursed. )The midwives left soon after that and Kris and I talked about names and settled on Fiona Siobhan pretty easily. We made our phone calls and have pretty much relaxed and just enjoyed our baby the rest of the day. Unlike Meredith’s labour, where I hadn’t slept in about 27 hours and so slept that whole day, I was feeling pretty good and only had a short nap in the afternoon when Kris and Meredith went out for some food.

We will be EC-ing with her as well, and we’ve already caught one pee and one of her meconium poops today, which is kind of neat.

I’ll post more pictures when I get a chance, but here’s one of Fiona. I was right when I had checked myself, she has tons of hair! It’s so strange to not be pregnant and that I have another little baby. Very surreal, but I’m loving it again. Meredith adores her right now and wants to hold her and touch her constantly. They were both nursing and looking in each other’s eyes while doing so, with Meredith’s hand stroking her head. I wish Kris had been around to get a picture. I hope Meredith continues to enjoy her so much as she realizes how much time and attention she will take up for a while.

Related posts:

1. Meredith's Birth Story
2. Still Pregnant…
3. There’s really something there!

Type of prenatal care provider 
Obstetrician/gynecologist: 58.1%
Family physician: 34.2%
Midwife: 6.1%
Nurse/nurse practitioner: 0.6%

Note: This data is quite interesting, given the lack of choice of prenatal care providers in many communities; and the chronic shortage of both family doctors and obstetricians/gynecologists.

How much choice did you have when it came to finding a prenatal care provider? Lots of choice? Or was the choice made for you?

Being in BC where midwives are covered under our health care, I had a lot of choices. I knew long before I actually became pregnant that I would choose to go with a midwife, and had done research and chosen a midwife clinic already. Midwives do book up very quickly here, so I knew that if I waited too long after finding out I was pregnant that my choice might be taken away from me. The choices here range from doctors, to what are jokingly called “medwives” (midwives who follow a much more medical model of care), to the type of midwife who believes in a woman’s ability to give birth and is much more hands off. Unassisted birth is also legal here. We chose a midwife group that had a reputation for being very hands off, though there were three midwives and we got the most medically-minded of the three (and our last choice) for the actual birth. Luckily we knew all three well at that point and our first choice was the one who ended up doing most of our postnatal care. I also had a doula who I loved and I found her support more important to us than the midwife. Too bad doulas can’t attend unassisted births. I would actually consider an unassisted birth in the future, except I liked having other women around to cheer me on and just offer their support. I don’t feel that unassisted birth is dangerous or scary though.

Most useful sources of information about pregnancy
Health care provider (32.2%)
Books (22.3%) 
Previous pregnancy (17.1%)

Note: This data is very different from what other similar studies have revealed. They have indicated that moms-to-be tend to turn to close female friends and female relatives for support and information during pregnancy.

So what do you think? Where did you go for information when you were pregnant? Do the answers to this question make sense to you?

I was the first of my friends and my side of the family to get pregnant, so I didn’t really have a lot of people I could turn to with questions. I did ask my mom at times, but honestly we are on such different wavelengths on so many things that I didn’t really feel like I could turn to her. We did hire a doula and I found both her and my midwives to be really valuable sources of information to us. I didn’t read that many books, which is odd to me because I’m such a bookworm, though I tried to read lots of positive home birth stories both online and in books. Of course the internet came in handy as well. I spent a lot of time at MotheringDotCommune and whenever I had questions about the various tests or procedures, Google was my best friend.

Folic acid supplementation
Almost a quarter (22.4%) of women did not know, prior to pregnancy, that taking folic acid before pregnancy could help prevent some birth defects.

Note: Public education campaigns aimed at increasing awareness of the need to take folic acid prior to pregnancy have existed in Canada since the early 1990s. Clearly, these campaigns are failing to reach about 1 in 4 moms-to-be. New research indicates that folic acid can help to prevent preterm birth if it is taken a year before pregnancy. Prospective mothers now need to be thinking about increasing their folic acid intake a year before they start trying to conceive. Health educators now need to be thinking about ways to get this message out — an even greater challenge.

Did you know about the importance of taking folic acid prior to conceiving? Had you heard about the new research about the role folic acid can play in preventing preterm birth (if you take it one year before becoming pregnant)?

I knew about the importance of folic acid and also knew it was recommended to be taking it before conceiving. I actually ate a pretty balanced, varied diet prior to being pregnant and so chose not to take any supplements. However, once I became pregnant I did take a prenatal vitamin because I was so sick and nauseous I had a hard time eating as well as I knew I should. I hadn’t heard that folic acid can prevent preterm birth though.

Place of birth
Hospital or clinic 97.9%
Home birth: 1.2%
Birthing centre: 0.8%

Older women and women giving birth to their second or subsequent baby had higher proportions of out-of-hospital births.    

Note: These statistics do not necessarily reflect what a woman would choose for herself, but rather what choice she made given the options that were available to her.

A 1999 survey indicated that 31% of Canadian women would choose to deliver in a birth centre. In reality, relatively few Canadian women have the option of giving birth in a birthing centre. Birth centres only exist in certain provinces/communities; some are privately funded. Likewise, midwives are not accessible to all women in all communities, and some provinces do not fund their services; so home birth is not an option for all Canadian women.

Did you feel you had adequate choice in terms of a place to give birth? Did you wish you had more options?

This sort of stems from number 1, but being in BC home birth is legal so we did have a choice (and chose home birth). Unfortunately there are no birth centers here for the women who would choose that option, though I know of a couple of midwives who are willing to let clients birth in their homes. In fact, we were in the process of moving right around nine months and my doula had offered her house to us if the move was going to impede on being able to give birth at one or the other of our places. I wish a birth center was an option simply because I feel more women would be comfortable staying out of the hospital.

Related posts:

1. There’s really something there!
2. It's true
3. Fiona’s Home Waterbirth

Are you a good candidate for a hospital birth?

Must not be scared of needles.

Must not be claustrophobic or uncomfortable in confined spaces.

Must be able to go for long periods of time without eating or drinking.

Must be happy to share a bathroom with others.

Must enjoy sleeping on a mattress covered with plastic.

Must not have a rebellious or questioning nature.

Must accept the possibility of contracting antibiotic-resistant infections.

Must be confident with caregivers who are overtired and overworked.

Must realize that a limited amount of time can be spent in a hospital room before it is needed for the next patient.

Must like and trust electronic equipment.

Must be comfortable with cesarean rate of 30%.

Must accept that the mood of the nurse on duty will be a large determinant of the birth outcome.

Must realize that someone you have never met before will likely receive your baby.

Must realize that the written birth plan will be ignored.

Must be willing to have fluorescent lights turned on at all hours.

Must be capable of birthing without making loud noises.

Must look good in a flimsy blue gown that is open up the back.

Must be willing to be a teaching subject for student doctors who are learning to do pelvic exams, surgeries, and suturing.

Related posts:

1. Meredith's Birth Story
2. Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey
3. Fiona’s Home Waterbirth

My blood pressure had sky rocketed in the week before birth, and I had been put on modified bed rest (which I didn’t do very well, considering we were in the process of moving). I went to acupuncture to try to bring it down, and my midwives knew how badly I wanted a home birth and so avoided sending me to a doctor even at a point when they maybe should have. I was feeling great and my blood showed no signs of pretoxemia. The acupuncture helped and my bp managed to drop to more normal levels again on August 1.

Labour began on my due date, August 3, around 10:30 at night, less than a minute after having sex. At the time I didn’t believe the contractions would actually amount to anything. All the women in my family ended up giving birth weeks late or having c-sections, so I was preparing myself for a bit of a wait. I hadn’t seen a mucus plug or bloody show. I didn’t time the contractions at this point, and fell asleep about 45 minutes later.

About 1:30 in the morning I woke up and realized I was still contracting. I checked the clock and started timing them. They were pretty regular, about 7-8 minutes apart. They weren’t what I was expecting, to me they didn’t feel like period cramps at all. I didn’t find them painful, but they were definitely noticeable. Kris woke up and we decided to call our doula, Heather. I let her know I thought labour may have started and she advised us both to take Gravol so we would sleep. She assured me it wouldn’t hurt the baby and would be out of my system before the baby was born. We took Gravol and both fell back to sleep. I woke up about 5 in the morning again to another contraction. It seemed to be taking forever between contractions and I told Kris I thought labour had stopped, but when I checked the clock they were still every 6-8 minutes, so it must have just seemed like forever. I went back to sleep for a few more hours.

We had told a friend of ours we would drive her to the airport that morning, but since I was in labour Kris went to go get her early so she could hang out at our house in case my labour started progressing really quickly. Our house is closer to the airport if she needed to catch a cab. It was good she came over though. We had just moved 4 days previous to this and there were boxes and furniture everywhere, so she helped Kris set up the futon bed downstairs with a plastic sheet and make room for the birthing pool Heather would bring later. At this point the contractions still weren’t painful or difficult at all. When we drove her to the airport my friend asked if I’d even had any contractions while she was there, and was surprised when I told her they were 4-5 minutes apart.

We kept in touch with Heather throughout the day, and I also called the midwife on call, Valerie, and let her know I thought I might be in labour. She said normally she would recommend walking to help it progress, but because I’d been having blood pressure problems she thought it would be better if I took it easy still. She didn’t want me to end up in the hospital for the birth after everything I’d done to try and keep my bp low. I wasn’t sure it would really make any difference, but I was okay just relaxing anyway so I did.

Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon the contractions became a bit harder to talk through. They still weren’t too bad and I wasn’t convinced I was really in labour. I expected them to stop any minute still. I suggested maybe we should both take Gravol and try to sleep some more, but thought if it was real the baby would come pretty quickly and so we didn’t. I also was really iffy about taking anything at all, including Gravol, so wanted to avoid it if possible.  Around 10:15pm Kris called Heather and told her we thought she should come soon. The contractions were more regular and about every 2-4 minutes, but still not very painful. I had to breathe through them but otherwise they weren’t bad. She told us she would be about an hour but to call her if we thought she should get here sooner. She got here around 11:15 and I made a joke of some sort. She told me I sounded much too happy to be a woman in labour.

The house was really warm and it was a beautiful night, so Heather suggested we go for a walk. She took our dog and walked quite a way behind us and told me and Kris to just relax, go slow, and pretend she wasn’t there. As we walked I could feel the contractions getting stronger and closer together. Kris and I would stop and sway together each time. Heather told me sometime around then is when I probably went into active labour.

Back at the house, I started rocking on the birthing ball. I was still laughing and joking with Heather and Kris and felt pretty good, though a bit tired. Around 1am I tried to lie down cuddling with Kris for a bit. I found the contractions really hard to handle lying down though. No wonder women in hospitals all get epidurals! I tried to rest as much as I could between contractions, and during contractions I had to sit up. Around this time I took the clock down in that room and made up my mind not to go into our kitchen (where there is another clock). I’m really glad I did that. After this any times I write are from Heather, as I had no clue what time it was anymore.

About 2 I was having more trouble with the contractions, and finding them quite painful. Heather filled up the birthing pool and I got in. It was instant relief. We were back to Heather having to ask me to tell her when contractions started and ended because she couldn’t tell anymore just by my reactions. She timed a few of them to make sure the water hadn’t stalled anything. Kris was offering me sips of water and 7-Up after every contraction and Heather was pouring water over my shoulders. At 2:45 I had to go to the bathroom so I got out of the water. Kris got me a popsicle to suck on but I didn’t eat much of it. Heather had me walk up and down the stairs a few times to try and help the baby descend. I got back in the pool, and the contractions were longer and stronger now. Heather called the midwife to let her know she should probably come anytime.

Valerie got here around 4am. She set up all her gear while we all chat, though mostly I listened and didn’t do much talking. She checked the baby’s heartbeat and it was strong and steady. She asked if my water had broken (I never got GBS tested), but I had no idea because of being in the pool. I got out of the pool to pee again and Valerie asked if I want to be checked. I agreed. I found that to be extremely painful.  At that point I was 6 cm dilated.

Heather told me the baby was posterior and still needed to rotate. Valerie and Heather encouraged me to try and relax as much as possible between and throughout contractions. We walked up and down the stairs again and then I got back into the pool. Heather asked me to stick my bum up during contractions, but I found this really hard and painful. I was having more trouble with the contractions at this point, and finding it harder to relax during them.

About 5am I started finding the contractions really hard. I was very tired and I looked at Kris and told him I wasn’t sure I could do it. The thought of going to the hospital for pain relief never crossed my mind, I just wanted to lie down and sleep for even twenty minutes. Heather and Valerie were great and kept telling me I was doing wonderfully and that I could do it. I felt like I wasn’t getting much of a break between contractions. At this point, Heather wrote that my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and lasting over a minute each. She gave me some homeopathic meds which helped, and they gave me sips of juice and water in between every contraction. Sometime around this point I started vomiting with every contraction. I actually told them I kind of liked the puking because it took my mind off the pain of the contractions. I got out of the pool and went to sit on the toilet. Kris was with me the whole time and I would look into his eyes with every contraction and try to breathe through them. With the vomiting, V started to worry about dehydration since I wasn’t drinking much, and asked me if I would take a Gravol. I was really hesitant, but she told me it would be better for the baby than getting dehydrated. I agreed to a very low dose, and it did start to help quite quickly. The contractions were coming right on top of each other and she thought I might be in transition.

I got back in the pool, and was feeling a little better, though very tired. I noticed it was getting light outside and thought, so much for having the baby overnight. They were all trying to get me to eat some toast with peanut butter and drink more. I took tiny sips and bites, but enough to keep them all happy. Valerie asked if I felt pressure, as she said my moans sound a bit “pushy”. I tell her a small amount, though once I actually felt real pushy contractions I realized what I’d felt at that point was nothing. Valerie checked me again. I didn’t ask what I was at, but found out later I was still 6-7 cm. The head was low but still hadn’t descended enough. Valerie asked if I want her to break my water, but I decided not to. The baby still hadn’t turned.

They asked me if I want to go upstairs to the shower. I told them I would if we could bring the birthing ball in there too, which we did. I sat in the shower for a while, which was really nice, but then Valerie or Heather told me I should try some different positions to try and get baby to turn and descend. They got me to crawl on my hands and knees along my hallway. I found this extremely painful and difficult, but persisted. I started talking to the baby, telling her to descend and turn and then we could meet each other. I started feeling very strong, involuntary pushing urges. Valerie checked me and tells me unfortunately there is still a cervical lip and asks me to try my best not to push yet. I think that was the hardest part of the entire labour. Kris supported me the whole time and breathed along with me as I continued to crawl along the hallway. He held my hand through the contractions and I asked him to squeeze it hard, but he was too afraid of hurting me to squeeze as hard as I would have liked. I squeezed his hand back too (and I had no compunction about squeezing hard…).

I was exhausted, but I knew that with the pushing it would be over soon. I asked if I could sit on the toilet, and the contractions slowed way down. I was falling asleep between contractions while sitting on the toilet. Kris asked if it was normal for the contractions to slow down so much, and Valerie and Heather assured us it isn’t unheard of at the end. Valerie checked me again around 9am and I was fully dilated. At this point she did break my water, which sprayed everywhere. It felt really good to me too, like a whole lot of pressure suddenly gone. They called the back up midwife and told me I could start pushing. I pushed on the toilet for a while, holding on to Kris. He said he can’t believe how strong I am, he can barely support me, and Valerie and Heather agreed that a labouring woman has incredible strength. I loved pushing, it hurt a lot but I knew that this was the last step before meeting my baby.

The back up midwife, Michelle, got there and soon after they told me it’s time to get off the toilet and go downstairs to where everything is set up. I started crying and didn’t want to get off the toilet. They told me I needed to get up or I would have the baby on the toilet, but I really didn’t want to go down the stairs. I asked Heather if they could bring the pool upstairs. (Full of water and all!) They couldn’t do that obviously, but they did go get the rest of their birthing supplies and lay them out in my hallway. I knelt in the hallway on some of those blue pads and a towel and held on to Kris. At one point someone told me to be nice to Kris, I would need him after, but I didn’t let up on the poor guy. The baby’s head was visible with every push and Valerie let Kris see. He said it looked painful for the baby, the head was a very funny shape. They held up a mirror for me to see too, and let me touch the head. I could see lots of hair.

I gave a push and I guess her head came out, though I didn’t know it. Valerie told me to stop pushing for a minute and luckily Kris picked up on that and started puffing, and I copied him just long enough for the baby to turn a little so the shoulders could come out. Valerie started to let us know the baby’s head was out but then I gave one more push and the whole baby slipped out. It surprised her and she barely got her hands up in time to guide the baby to the floor underneath me. I couldn’t believe it was over. It was 9:44 am, August 5, about 35 hours after the first twinges started, and after being in transition for 3-4 hours (I’m told it was longer than normal because she was posterior). I had pushed for 44 minutes. She came out posterior and with her chin out, rather than tucked in.

They were telling me to pick up my baby, and I looked down and saw this little baby below me and couldn’t believe that that was my baby. But I picked her up and held her to me and she proceeded to immediately poop on me. I looked at Kris and said “We did it!” He responded that I had done it. Someone asked if it was a boy or a girl, as we hadn’t found out ahead of time. I held her out and looked and couldn’t quite connect what I was seeing with a gender, so Kris was the one who said it’s a girl. It didn’t surprise me at all, that just felt exactly right to me.

They helped us downstairs to the futon where I delivered the placenta, while holding my daughter skin-to-skin the whole time. Kris cut the cord. Soon after that she started rooting around and they showed me how to nurse her. She pretty much did all the work herself though. We snuggled and nursed for a while while they cleaned up. Eventually Michelle asked if she could weigh the baby, which would be done right next to me. I had to go pee though so Kris stayed there while I went to the bathroom. She had perfect Apgar scores and weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20.25″ long. She was alert right from birth. (We actually got comments for months afterwards about how alert she always was.) We opted out of the vitamin K and the eye goop. Eventually they left and Kris and I snuggled together with her for a while, and then Kris went to go sleep. I wasn’t really tired anymore so I stayed awake staring at her. We didn’t name her until a little later when Kris went to send off e-mails to everyone. We had had a few names picked out, but both of us agreed on the same name very easily. It was what we had both felt suited her best. We decided on Meredith.

We spent the next 2 or 3 weeks skin to skin. People kept asking us if we ever dressed her (or if I ever got dressed) or if I ever put her down. When I wrote this she was 8 weeks old and at that time we still tried to hold her skin-to-skin as much as possible and didn’t put her down. She had gained over 5 pounds in 8 weeks and about 6 cm.  One of the midwives who came to check us commented that she could always tell the babies who were held skin to skin a lot and not put down, and I hadn’t told her we did that, so obviously there must be some difference.

I am so glad we decided on a home birth and would do it again in an instant. There were times it was hard and that I was doubting myself, but I was really glad for the support from my doula. I didn’t have a birth plan, but I had discussed some of my thoughts with the midwives and the doula ahead of time and trusted that they felt as I did about birth, so I didn’t feel I needed one. If I were to change anything next time, I would opt to be checked a lot less (though I was only checked 3 or 4 times total, but I hated it each time), if at all. Also, Valerie hadn’t asked about breaking my water at the end, though it did feel really good and things started moving quickly after that, so maybe it was a good thing. I really wish I could have Heather there for the support next time, and just forego the midwife altogether. I don’t think doulas are allowed to do that though. That being said, I had a home birth not because I wanted to be a super mom, but because I felt it was the best thing for my daughter. It was a great experience and I don’t regret anything about it.

Heather told me later that because she was posterior and didn’t turn, if I had gone into the hospital I almost certainly would have had a c-section. Our hospital has one of the highest c-section rates in the country (over 40%), and there aren’t a lot of options for different positions to get baby to turn or descend. (You wouldn’t catch me crawling on a hospital floor, that’s for sure!)  I have a friend who went into the hospital wanting a natural birth and her baby was posterior. The doctor heard that and told her midwife to start preparing her for a c-section, without even giving her a chance. The midwife luckily told the doctor they were going to wait and see, and her baby did end up turning on his own, but I can’t believe what a knee jerk reaction a c-section is sometimes. Heather had only been to 2 or 3 births in the hospital where posterior babies were born vaginally. We had a home birth because we felt safer and more comfortable in our own home, with our own germs, than in a hospital, and I definitely feel that was safer than surgery would have been.

Related posts:

1. Still Pregnant…
2. She’s here!
3. Hospital Birth