Home Birth

This blog is a bit late in posting, since it's taken some time to draft being a busy mom and all, but I think is important to share my perspective on home birth:

I guess that I should have expected it, but I never thought that I'd get so many questions about having a home birth. Family, friends, colleagues, even strangers have asked me loads of questions...yes, apparently asking where you're delivering is a common icebreaker!

So, I've decided that I need to write about it to hopefully shed some light on a subject most people don't know much about, but are quite intrigued by...

1. What made you want a home birth? I was inspired by a documentary called the Business of Being Born, which shares the story of how childbirth moved from homes and into hospitals. When we were finished watching it, Kevin turned to me and asked if I wanted to do a home birth. I was already 18 weeks pregnant, so I told him that I'd have to think about it and do some more research. We had just moved into our new home, which was built is 1904 and the baby's room faces our lush back yard and it seemed like it would the most peaceful place to born (and it was!) From my first birth experience, I also knew that having a child naturally can be a wonderful experience and thankfully I had no risk factors. As things happen in this day and age, I found my midwives online through one of my favorite local mom blogs: Urban Mamas.
   
2. Did you have a midwife there? Yes, two. I worked with a local clinic with four midwives, Vivante Midwifery. They were extremely professional and had every possible detail coordinated and we had agreed upon a contingency plan. It was their website's list of Frequently Asked Questions that originally impressed me, but as soon as I met with them all I knew that my choice had been made.
3. Is home birth safe? Home birth is very safe when planned and attended by professional midwives. Some research shows that hospital births have increased the risks of birth, rather than decreased them even! Many women get stressed out by hospitals, which slows down delivery. Yes, I agree that high risk pregnancy births should absolutely happen in hospitals, but in the majority cases home birth is completely safe. It may be only anectdotal, but at the hospital where the first midwife, Peggy Vincent, attended at an U.S. hospital, 80% of the labor nurses chose to have home births themselves, simply because they knew the risks the hospital posed for having healthy natural deliveries.
   
4. Can you take drugs?! This is the question most people asked me first. The answer is no. Thankfully, with both deliveries I was able to stay calm and almost meditative, just listening to inspiring music and focusing on giving birth. Yes, birth is painful, but the pain is manageable. Both times I couldn't help but smile through the pain, knowing that my baby would soon arrive. (Though a friend who had a home birth says that she would have asked for drugs had she been in a hospital). I did take castor oil to induce the labor after my water had been broke for 15 hours, and I had walked over 3 miles to the pharmacy and back with no real progression in labor. It did the trick though, and after the last swig (yes, the stuff is nasty!) I went right into labor. I was barely in the birth pool for an hour, with about 8 minutes of pushing before delivery. I also found it very empowering to give birth naturally.
   
5. What about prenatal testing and making sure the baby is healthy? We had all the same standard prenatal testing available to us through our midwives, although they set us up with the hospital for our one standard ultrasound test. As it turned out, at the very end of my pregnancy I tested positive for Group B Strep, which apparently 1 in 4 pregnant women are known to be. We took the same precaution as if I would have delivered in the hospital, a dose of antibiotics was given through an IV every four hours before delivery (I had them remove the IV once my labor was progressing quickly), which reduced any risk to the baby to next to nothing. If at any point testing would have discovered anything more serious and I was determined to be "high risk," we would have planned for a hospital birth. Once Makenna was born they did the standard Apgar testing, weighed and measured her. They also did three home visits after she was born and took the standard tests, and this was a great perk of having a home birth. The only test that wasn't done was a hearing test, and I'm scheduled to get a free one done this Friday.
   
6. Didn't you need to buy a lot of supplies or prepare a bunch? I ordered the birth tub and birth kit both online. Together they cost about $250 and were eligible for tax-free reimbursement, I remember being charged some insane price for ibuprofan at the hospital during my first birth! Home birth is certainly an affordable option. The midwives brought two duffel bags full of emergency supplies, basically the same as a hospital would have on hand. As for other prep, it was mostly the same as any birth, which means cleaning the house for the baby's arrival...you have to nest toward the end anyway! I also did a fair amount in terms of educating myself and preparing mentally for birth, which I think helped me feel calm throughout both births. For first time moms I would recommend taking a class with your partner, where you can ask questions and learn about the birth process (what you've seen in the media about rushing to the hospital and overly dramatized birth in stirrups is typically false). I would also HIGHLY recommend reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, it is essential for both home and hospital births. Also, for fun, I enjoyed reading Baby Catcher, it's hilarious and informative.
   
7. Isn't home birth messy? Our clean up basically included Kevin bailing buckets of water into the bathtub. Yet, I had also prepared a "birth blanket" by stitching together a two flannels sheets, an old comforter and a shower curtain in the middle. A queen-size space could certainly contain any mess, and simply be thrown away afterward. The birth kit included disposable covers for your sheets and all the postnatal things a mom needs. We didn't do it, but you could hire a maid to come visit for the savings you'd get from not paying the hospital bill...in fact, after my first hospital birth, I had joked that I should have just rented an expensive hotel suite! Maybe next time ;-)
   
8. Were both your children born at home? No. My son Kieran was born at Providence hospital, and we had a very positive experience with the Providence Maternal Care Clinic (which I would definitely recommend as a hospital option.) I was fortunate to have a relatively short natural labor. Yet, even then I knew that in reality I was statistically very lucky to be able to have a natural birth in a hospital, since one in four American births come by Cesarean Section, and the majority of moms/babies are sedated upon delivery.
9. Was Kieran at the birth? We had talked with our midwives and read that many kids want to be a part of the excitement of birth. Yet, we planned to be open to either option in case he or I were reacting negatively. We checked out a great book from the library called Welcome With Love, where the baby is born at home, showing pictures of the umbilical cord and everything, and Kieran was always asking to read it together. About two weeks before I was due when we tested birth pool, I found a couple of positive and age-appropriate home water birth videos on YouTube and we watched them together with me telling him what birth might be like. We also planned for his care by inviting my cousin's daughter, Jessica, to be there to help take of him. In the end, my delivery was so short that Kieran barely managed to watch a video. I had my mom run to get him as soon as she was born, and he was in the room before we checked to see that she was a girl, the sister he always knew he had! He checked her out a little and then asked if he could go finish his cartoon.
   
10. What was the best part of having a home birth? I'd have to say that, aside from a safe and quick delivery, the best part of having a home birth were being able to have a big Sunday dinner together after Makenna was born: tortellinis and meatballs with red wine. I also loved being able to be in our own bed and have Kevin my side all night, and Kieran there the next morning as a whole little family. Plus, it was as sustainable as it gets :-)

Lastly, I hope these questions/answers get you thinking. Birth is a natural process that has been going on since our beginning; having faith in this mysterious process has helped us endure and succeed. Plus, home is where the heart is, where families grow, and dreams are born.