Just some food for thought (mini birthing rant. feel free to skip)

[katrinar]

i always thought i'd want a home birth, but since becoming pregnant, i'm becoming more and more ardent a supporter of midwifery as well as natural labour.

recently, matt and i watched a movie called The Business of Being Born. while US-centric, it really shows you what child birth is like in north america. it's can be a vicious cycle that's

Comments

[sangrealmazimur]

I agree 100%. I have always always said I wanted a water birth. I have nightmares of them trying to give me am eppy and getting paralized because they slipped or something. I just like the idea of doing it in the water (I was a swimmer growing up and I feel comfortable in the water)...but everyone laughs and is like, you say that now but wait until you get in labour!

I already know that when I am pregnant (past the 1st Trimester this time HA!), I want a birthing room with a birthing pool, and I want a silent delivery. By silent I mean I want everyone in the room except the doctor to STFU while I am working at birthing (I get sensory overload and start to panic).

I commend you for standing up for what you want because really this moment is about you and your Husband giving birth.

[katrinar]

first of all, i HIGHLY recommend you stop thinking about doctors and start thinking about midwives (if possible with the IVF). there aren't birthing centres in canada and i have yet to hear of a hospital that has birthing pools

[reqbat]

[katrinar]

i'm not trying to be negative, i'm just saying what my experience has been in talking to women in ontario - please keep that in mind also.

and as i mention in this post, i have friends who have LOVED the hospital experience. my language may come off as negative, but that's not my intent.

i have yet to hear of a woman in ontario not being offered epidural every time the nurse comes in to check stats. if any of my friends reading this from ontario with hospital births have had different experiences, i'd love to hear them - and all the births i'm talking about here have been in the last 12 months.

[anonymous]

yay! I want this too (one day) and Jason is SO against it...I need all the amo I can get, thanks for sharing. Blessings for your home birth!! (I was going to say 'good luck' but that always sounds so negative and sarcastic to me!)

[katrinar]

Bec - you got rid of your LJ? i totally forgot!

as req mentioned above - i don't want to sound negative, i'm trying to just point out all the negative experiences i've been faced with recently. and like i said, my friend emma had a hospital birth (but with a midwife) and she loved it.

[plumjudy]

I didn't! I wasn't signed in!

nono! good luck always sounds neg. not you! lol.

and 10 points for knowing it was me!

[katrinar]

as soon as it said "jason" i knew absolutely ha ha!

[say_it_with_pie]

I agree with all of this.

That being said, have you read some of the birthing stories written by totally insane people that have been floating around on the internet recently, like the mother who forced her two young daughters to watch the home birth of their little brother, even when the girls repeatedly begged to leave the room and were freaking the fuck out? And the woman was all like, "I know they really, really didn't want to be there, but I showed them the miracle of life!!!" and everyone reading it was like, "Lady! You showed them that you don't respect their opinions!"

[say_it_with_pie]

This is obviously not you, it was just started a funny flamewar on Salon.

[katrinar]

i haven't seen such things! i can't imagine.

i personally am hoping for a home birth (for the myriad of reasons) so that i can control who is around. I only want my midwives and matt. that's it. i can control it much better that way.

[katrinar]

Actually, matt and I are expecting the worst in terms of having to go to the hospital. We don't want to start there but know there's a very good chance we could end up there.

We're going for a hospital visit and everything.

I'm more commenting here about how all my friends who've had hospital births planned from the offset have nothing bur negative things to say about labour and delivery then follow up with "you are crazy to want to try at home." Which I think is fucking rude as hell.

[katrinar]

It's just so rude! You have nothing positive to say, but expect me to take your advise? Come on!