Ahhh, that's better!
Doesn't this look like a nice place for Babypants to be born?
Reading about this place eases my mind and spirit a lot. It sounds so much less scary.
I called and made an appointment for an orientation.
Check it out!
http://www.thebirthcenter.com/
Chunky monkey--I saw several comments from you! Welcome to my blog, and thank you for your kind comments! I really appreciate your advice.
posted by ElliottPreciousPants @ 4:54 PM
4 Comments:
YAY! i'm vicariously (sp?) empowered for you! i feel so strongly about all kinds of issues in pregnancy, since that's the kind of work i do, but i also try (not all that successfully ;) ) to keep from pressing people into my values. i think giving info is really important, and women deciding for themselves is important. of course, i always think that with all the info, people will believe the same as me. but i'll get over that. i'm very glad to be a teeny part of the process- babypants has a great mom already! and congrats on the nursing thing- you will be good at that!
Looks a lot like the place we picked for our birth center (our first pregnancy).
When I started taking the bradley class and looked into the Birth center, I thought it was going to be a bit too hippy/granola-esque, but when you find all the pluses of having a regular birth, without unnecessary medical intervention, it's nice to find people who believe what you do and have the science and skills to back it up. Let us know how the orientation goes.
I just talked to a midwife from the birth center, and she was wonderul! And I talked to her for quite a while--almost 20 minutes. When I made my appointment for my orientation, I mentioned that I noticed that they don't take high risk pregnancies, and that I wasn't sure if I would be considered high risk because of my weight and my PCOS. So the receptionist had the midwife call me, saying that she might be able to tell me if I am high risk or not. She called, and asked me some questions, like why I thought I was high risk, and how tall I am and how much I weigh and how much weight I have gained with the pregnancy, and what my eating habits were like, and she told me that 1-my age, activity level and diet make my weight not an issue, and that even if my activity level and diet were not as great as they are, my weight actually wouldn't be a problem anyhow, but that being active and having a good diet help a ton with that, and 2-PCOS does NOT make me a high risk patient, 3-GD does NOT make me high risk, and 4-what would make me high risk is not having my GD under control with diet, exercise, and medication, if I have it. Which I won't know until they test me in April.
Then she told me that any one of the nurse midwives at the center would welcome me with loving arms, and she hopes I keep my appointment and come in to see them.
She actually used the word loving. Isn't that nice? She was really nice. And then I mentioned to her that I was nervous, and she asked me what I was nervous about, and I told her some of the things I was nervous about, and she was totally calm and reassuring and assured me that while there were no guarantees, that based on what I was telling her on the phone and how much she knew about me in the past few minutes of our talking, and she could also see no reason why anything would go wrong, or why my pregnancy won't be awesome.
She suggested a hypnobirthing class, and something called a 'fear release' that I guess one of their midwives do to relieve stresses and fears, so that you feel better.
And, I called my insurance company, and they participate with the birth center.
She was wonderful. She took significantly more time with me than my own doctor did, I didn't feel at all like she was trying to rush me, and she seemed to geniunely take my fears seriously and to answer my questions. I liked her a lot. Finally I was like, well, I've taken up quite a bit of your time, I'm sorry, will you be the nurse midwife I see when I come on the 30th? And she said she isn't sure, but that she was sure that whoever I saw I would like very much, and that I didn't take up her time at all.
Much different than my experience at the doctor, which wasn't bad, but, it was just much different. I guess at my doctor, I just felt like another woman having a baby, like the three trillion women in the waiting room that day, but Kathleen the nurse midwife made me feel like my concerns weren't silly, and yes having a baby is a big deal, but it's a wonderful awesome thing and I should enjoy every minute.
I can't imagine anyone at my busy doctor's office taking that kind of time to talk to me and answer my questions.
yay! i'm SO happy that you and babypants are having that experience. being pregnant and giving birth ARE big deals, but they aren't illnesses. if they induce illness in you (ie- GD), then you treat the illness- midwives can help you even if you wind up (which you won't) being high risk. We have midwives that help with our ladies- who are VERY high risk. this is a happy time!
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