Home Birth

After much prayer & meeting with several midwives, we have decided to have a home birth with this baby.
Before you think I must have lost one too many brain cells with my last 2 pregnancies, let me explain our reasons:

1. I have to admit, the first thing that caught my attention was the price. With Jason being "self-employed," our co-pay for this next baby would be $7,500. Shea...HOLY COW! The cost of a home birth midwife, everything included, is typically $1,500-$2,500. But we would pay that $7,500 in a heartbeat if we thought there was danger with this home birth or if we didn't feel right about it.

2. If you wonder about the safety of home births, go here: http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/
even better, watch the entire movie. Bottomline - home births with experienced midwives have the same infant mortality rate as hospital births and the U.S. stands alone with almost all our births in hospitals. Every other country (including our "civilized" counterparts) have mostly midwives delivering babies and many of those at home.

3. I am actually really looking forward to our home birth experience. McKinley's birth was so opposite of what I wanted. I guess no one told me (or I didn't understand) that this doctor we'd developed a relationship with over 9+ months, who I'd seen every time, who knew me and my baby DID NOT run the show. This random (crazy, pitocin-cranking, "we do things my way") nurse was in charge and I felt totally helpless. I ended up getting my water broken, pitocin, and an epidural right before I gave birth. Yes, I got my beautiful healthy baby girl, but it was NOT the way I wanted it. Ireland was much better. I had a CNM there & she ran the show, but she didn't have to do much since I was already at an 8 when I went in. I kind of wish I would have had a home birth with that one, since I just got to the hospital & she was born and hour or two later. So - there you go. I know who is going to be here. I know who is running the show. I don't have to have needles and poking and questions. I can just focus on bringing my baby into this world and working through the pain.

4. My sister had her last 2 at home and had a great experience. There is also someone in our ward I've talked to quite a bit that had 5 of her 7 children at home. I also went to a forum for home births and was pleased to find that they were all women like me - not hippies or poor people or whatever. Most of them were just looking for better birth experiences.

My midwife is pretty holistic. So - I'm working on opening my mind to tea with all kinds of herbs in it, drinking chlorophyll (yeah..we'll see about that one), and eating better overall - including more veggies. It will be good for me to have her "on my shoulder" reminding me to take better care of my body. Maybe if I strive to eat better, it will make me start to feel a whole lot better. The nausea is better, but the heartburn and indigestion still have plagued me.

She's in Pleasant Grove, but it's a quick 30 minute drive and the girls love to come & see her & today we got to hear the heartbeat again. There are very few sounds in this world that touch a woman's heart like the sound of your baby's heartbeat. It makes me feel so worthwhile - even if I've seemingly done nothing but incubate this life in the past 3 months. It also makes me feel incredibly blessed. We passed a billboard with a number to call to help with infertility. I said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that we have been so blessed.