Archive for Choosing your care and support
October 22, 2009 at 6:48 pm
· Filed under Choosing your care and support, Experiencing the miracle of birth ·Tagged birth, choice, delivery, delivery process, inclusion, web-cam
Jenny chose to have a natural home birth with a midwife present. This immediately made sense to her. Her Mom had done it and therefore she felt she could too. It wasn’t unfamiliar inside her family. Her Mom had experienced a home birth and her mother-in-law had experienced a natural childbirth. So there was immediate support and understanding in her extended family.
Jenny got a referral from a woman who had given birth with a particular midwife a few times. Jenny met with this midwife and found her to be positive and upbeat. The midwife confirmed her decision as a great one, shared her stats with Jenny, and asked if she had any questions. Jenny didn’t. She didn’t look further. She didn’t have to.
An inquiry Jenny spent more time with was who to have at her birth. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
September 24, 2009 at 7:25 pm
· Filed under Choosing your care and support, Experiencing the miracle of birth ·Tagged birth, choice, delivery, home birth, midwife, pregnant, sharing your experience, unassisted birth
This week’s blog entry is written by Debi. Debi is a life coach, Children’s book writer (www.njoybooks.com), and regular blogger (www.njoybooks.com/sunnydays).
Debi writes: Angels woke me up the night Ellie was born to let me know that she was about to arrive. I was asleep in one of our living room chairs when I was awakened by the absolute knowing that birth was about to begin. As I arose from the chair, I thought how crazy that was, because there were no obvious signs that that was the case. I went into the bedroom and lay down when suddenly my water broke. From all the literature I had read, we had loads of time before having to arrive at the hospital, so I took my time taking a shower, blow drying my hair, preparing myself. I was still feeling good, just occasionally a slight contraction that would slow me down. My husband, Thom began timing my contractions and he realized that we needed to be at the hospital five minutes ago. Weird. I was still feeling like taking my time. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
July 27, 2009 at 9:42 pm
· Filed under Choosing your care and support, Honoring each others' choices ·Tagged baby, choice, family, Honoring each others' choices, pregnancy, pregnant
Leslie tends to be fairly open, transparent, and asks a lot of people their opinions. She certainly did this when she was considering adding to her family as a 44 year-old, recently divorced, single Mom. She asked others: What are the implications to the kid? What about the family? What about the sibling, because Leslie had a 7-year-old daughter. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
July 10, 2008 at 3:28 am
· Filed under Choosing your care and support ·Tagged choice, unassisted birth
There are increasingly more options out there for women who want to intentionally choose the type of people who will support her during her pregnancy and childbirth. The initial options that come to mind include a doctor, a midwife, a doula and a birth partner. And, there’s an infinite number of ways that you can carve out and create your relationships with these types of individuals.
When someone is pregnant for the second time, she has the information about how she thought and felt during the first pregnancy and childbirth. Debi, during her first birth experience, discovered that she felt most at peace when it was just her and her husband in the hospital room. It was a busy night at the hospital and they were frequently left to themselves. When the hospital staff did come in the room, Debi experienced it as an interruption to the flow and peace they created when they were alone.
Debi’s second pregnancy comes along 5 years later and Debi knew she wanted to create a different kind of experience. She contacted a couple of mid-wives. Neither of them worked out – one, with whom Debi had a great connection wasn’t available and the second, didn’t represent a good connection in Debi’s view. She refused to compromise. She wanted to feel totally comfortable and at peace with her choice of care. So, now what? She wanted to give birth at home.
She looked to an option that many of us might not even consider to be a possibility. She began to research the idea of doing it on her own. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
