Saturday 3 August 2013

The Debate... Where Should I Have My Baby?


I wanted to share how I came to the decision to have the baby at home.  It was absolutely the right decision for me though I understand it isn’t for everyone.

When I found out I was pregnant I immediately considered having my baby at home with a midwife.  Then I thought maybe it makes more sense to have the baby at the hospital based on the fact that I’m 45 years old which makes me high risk or at least that’s what the medical professionals would have me believe.  I figured I should be practical.  At least at the hospital if there were any problems with the baby there would be pediatricians there to deal with it though when working with a midwife as you approach the moment of birth a second midwife joins the party to be there for the baby.  Then there is the practical issue of the fact that if I was at the hospital my dogs wouldn’t have to be shipped off (and therefore rejected) for this new little being that was going to enter my life.

Then I watched the movie The Business of Being Born!  Home birth looked so much more pleasant and seemed to provide greater protection against ‘medical intervention’.  It was an incredibly empowering movie and by the end of it I was sold on the home birth idea!  It’s easy to make the argument for home birth when you hear stats like the majority of ‘emergency’ cesarian sections are done at 4 pm and 10 pm... suggesting that basically either the doctor wants to get home for dinner or to go to bed!  When I heard that I decided if possible I would like to avoid the pressure of medical intervention when I am vulnerable and my midwife said I was having an easy pregnancy so home birth it was!  What I didn’t consider at that time that was that the midwives come to visit you in your home after the birth and they are WONDERFUL!!!  

I have to say I wouldn't want to have a home birth if I lived an hour from a hospital, but in an urban centre where emergency care is a few moments away I am all for it.  Being at home allowed me to walk my own halls, to bathe in my own bathtub, to have my baby in my bed and then without even getting out of it go to sleep and wake up and start my new life as a mom!!!  Consider your options pregnant ladies because as they say in the movie The Business of Being Born birth isn’t an illness so why medicalize it... (or something along those lines...).




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