With all the baby activity around here (2 new babies in the past two weeks for the Haymond family–so fun and exciting!), I’ve been getting lots of questions about what our plans are for our own baby due in a couple months. So, I thought I’d take a minute (or 20) to explain our plans and maybe answer some of the questions. Prepare to be bombarded. This is a topic I could go on and on about. A lot of you could probably care less–feel free to skip this post 🙂 And for those of you that do read it, please understand that I certainly respect anyone’s decision to birth in a hospital and with pain medication. If you want to know why I choose to labor without pain medication, I’d love to talk about it with you. That’s not really what this post is about, though.

So, yes, plans. Plans are just that–plans. I know that labor and delivery is something you can never have complete control over, but Bryce and I have tried to make a good plan. This plan begins with an out-of-hospital birth. With my birth history, I am a perfect candidate for this kind of birth. I’ve had very normal pregnancies and uncomplicated deliveries. For this baby, we are planning on birthing at a lovely birth center in Murray called Great Expectations. The center is run by Rebecca Williams–I’ll get to her later–and it’s a very nice facility. Why a birth center instead of a hospital? Here are a couple of reasons (and, for the record, I wanted these to be bulleted, not numbered, but the bullets don’t work on our blog):

1. Comfort. With both of my previous births, going to the hospital was such a major shift for me. Out of my comfortable home and into the very medical atmosphere. Each time, when they brought me into triage to monitor for 20 minutes, I stalled out. This meant that, each time, I got to walk the halls for a couple hours before they would formally admit me. With Calder, I was 4 centimeters dilated when we got to the hospital and they still made me walk the halls. I was told that when a mother is trying to birth sans pain medication, they want to be very sure that she is really in active labor before admitting her. If I had wanted an epidural, I would have been in a room at 3 centimeters. Kind of strange protocol, if you ask me. With Calder, I walked the halls (walked and leaned over the hand rails and moaned and rocked) for an hour, came back to triage, and was at 7 centimeters dilated–showed them, I guess 😉 So, the hospital is just not the most inviting or comfortable place for someone trying to go med-free.
2. Freedom to Choose. I also knew that I wanted a different midwife experience this time around (more on that later) and found that there were some really terrific options available if I was open to looking outside of a hospital-based practice.

Here’s a picture to help break up all this text:

Where I have all of my prenatal visits. She has loads of toys that the kids love to play with in here, too.

Even more important than the facility for me was the midwife. I interviewed (which means I met with them in-person at their offices) 5 midwives before settling on Rebecca. It’s really interesting to me how before, when I just went with what our insurance covered, I really had no insight into my midwives’ experience, philosophies, or personalities. Whoever was on call was who I birthed with. This time, I’ve really felt empowered as I’ve carefully considered all of these different aspects with each of the midwives I interviewed. I know their birthing histories (number of births attended, etc.), I learned about their personal ideas about pregnancy and birth, and I got to choose someone that I enjoyed being with and felt safe with. Never an option before.

Here’s another picture to keep you awake:

The kitchen. Rebecca is sweet enough to make the family a meal (discussed ahead of time) after the birth--a friend of mine told me that her cinnamon rolls are fantastic. Sounds good to me!

Here are a few reasons why I chose to work with Rebecca:

1. She has the credentials and experience that make me feel safe. Rebecca is a Certified Nurse-Midwife. This means that she went through nursing school, had lots of nursing experience (in her case, at least) and then got a masters degree in midwifery. These are the kinds of midwives that can deliver in hospitals, although Rebecca has chosen to provide her services to those looking for an out-of-hospital birth. The midwives that I went to for Amelie and Calder were CNMs. On top of all this, Rebecca also has another masters degree in nursing. She knows her stuff, that’s for sure. And she’s the only CNM in our area that has her own birth center. The other midwives that have birth centers are Certified Professional Midwives. This usually means that they went through some kind of midwifery schooling and then apprenticed with another midwife. They aren’t less-qualified and many might prefer a CPM, but, in our case, we found that we were most comfortable with someone with a little more medical training.
2. She’s great to work with. I never have to wait for an appointment with Rebecca (with my other midwives, I usually waited at least 20-30 minutes before each appointment). On top of that, each of my appointments has lasted about an hour (with my other midwives, they usually didn’t last longer than 10 minutes). Rebecca has really taken the time to get to know me (and the kids) and she is very thorough. She goes over the results of every test I take with me–I’ve never known so much about my own blood before!–and carefully goes over any questions I might have or any issues related to my current stage of pregnancy. I never feel rushed and I feel like I know her pretty well–very different from my past experiences. I am 100% comfortable with her.

Here’s the birth room:

The birth room. This photo doesn't do it justice, in my opinion, but the room is large and comfortable and inviting. Just what a birthing mother needs.

Finally, since, as I mentioned, I know that we’re never in complete control of what happens, here are a few other important reasons why we chose to work with Rebecca at her birth center:

1. She is very safe. Her number one priority is the safety of the birthing mother and the baby. And she has the track record to prove it. Out of the over 350 births that she’s attended in Utah (she isn’t from here originally), only 17 birthing mothers have transfered to the hospital. And none of these were for emergencies. None of her newborns have had to be transfered to a hospital either. No mothers or babies have died in her care. I think that a lot of this is because she only accepts low-risk patients and because of her quality of care. By the time I birth, she will know me, my body, my baby, and my history very very well. This means that if anything comes up during labor that might suggest a potential problem, she’ll be able to spot it right away and take appropriate measures to take care of it. And since I’ve been asked about this (since we just had a breech baby situation in the Haymond family a couple weeks ago), if our baby is breech come labor time, we will not birth at the birth center. That’s an automatic reason to go to the hospital in Rebecca’s book. If we discover that the baby is breech ahead of time, she has lots of resources and tricks to get the baby to flip back into a head-down position. If we tried to have the baby turned, she would refer us to a doctor at a nearby hospital who, apparently, has a stellar reputation for turning babies safely and effectively.
2. The birth center is just minutes away from the IMC hospital in Murray. This is where we would go if something came up during labor.

Last picture:

The thing I'm most excited to try out during labor--the huge tub! Water has such a relaxing influence and can really help with pain management. This tub was special ordered and has a padding layer of sand under the surface layer to make it extra comfortable while laboring.

So, there you have it. A few of the details of our plan and some of the reasons behind the plan. I have to say, I am getting so excited for this whole experience and have loved the care I have received from Rebecca so far. It’s been wonderful–I feel pampered and empowered and respected. And I know that my baby and I are in good hands. I know that this whole idea is kind of foreign to a lot of you, so feel free to ask me any questions. As you can see, I love to talk about it. Only about 10 weeks to go!