When I have a baby I would like to have a water birth or one at home. I don't like all that hospital birth because from what I have seen and heard, it doesn't look very comfortable. I don't want to be shot up with pain killers, I don't want my baby to be taken away from me and have 4 diferent people touching, poking, cutting and pulling at him. Have you seen Monthy Python's the Meaning of Life? well thats not what I want for me of my baby. (i know it's exagerated) anyway , the thing is that I've been looking for info on natural births, and midwives here in PR but I can't find any... and I'm sure if I find one I probably wont be able to aford it. I wanted to know how much say do I have in the way a hospital birth takes place??? Can I have a signed document with certain things I do or don't want done? This makes me very nervous... a friend of mine had her baby girl in the hospital and said they druged her so bad that se couldnt even hold or acknowlege that her baby was born... then they took her away and she didnt get to see her after a few days, and the baby was healthy, so why couldn't she see her... hospitals are crazy here... it would be my "i don't have a choice" option. what should or could i do? I'm not pregnant yet... so I have a lot of time to do research and keep looking for options. I just want to hear what others have gone through.
I think, just from your last posts, that you would really enjoy a home birth. I so wish I had just started out that way instead of ending that way. I'm not really sure how PR views birth so I can't really advice what you'd have control over in a hospital. I can tell you that you CAN have a natural hospital birth, but IMO, you need to be really strog minded (which I am not BTW ). Sometimes Dr's and nurses can really sell you on pain meds or an epidural. I had two hospital births and not once was a babe found alone without mom or dad right there. We were adament about that. I also went home 5 hours after my second was born. It was my right. If you have midwives that work in a hospital (CNM), you could make an appointment with one just to talk about these things (or a Dr if a CNM is not available). Or you could start saving NOW for a homebirth. There's got to be some homebirth MW's there somewhere, you just have to dig sometimes . My MW takes a "payment plan". We've had to sacrifice a few things of course, but you have time on your side.
If I were you, I'd design a birthing plan in case you were to end up giving birth in a hospital. You can find guidelines on how to make one all over the web. Basically, it lets the staff know what your wishes are. Now if there are complications, they will do what is in the best interest of both you and your baby, so you might not end up having exactly the birth you want, but of course I know that the health of your baby is the most important thing anyway! I will say that, with my experience, the medical staff at the hospital really pushed for me to have pain meds/epidurals. I refused. It was the one thing that I felt I actually had control over in my birthing experiences due to the complications I had. They couldn't understand why I would want to go through the pain when I could easily have something to take the pain away, but I stood firm. I think a home birth would be wonderful. I would have loved to have been able to do that!
If you want unessary pain, I could just boog you in the face. That's stoopid to not go to a hospitle. When I was born, there was a lack of oxygen or something. Try finding a oxygen device at home. Sometimes shit goes wrong, nome sayin'? From what I've heard birth at home is a comfortable as getting a massage.
Slient, please don't let a 17 year old MALE put stupid things into your head. Clouds, have you had a child? Have you been through labor? Enough said. Labor and delivery are just as much in the brain as they are in the body. The comfyness of where you labor has MUCH to do about how your birth progresses. Licensed homebirth midwives are fully trained and have everything they need in their home birth bag of tricks...like oxygen <rolleyes> If the need arises for a hospital transfer, the can help you and the babe in the meantime. Peace
hey silent, try pming Brighid...shes a midwife and has seen it all so i'm sure she will be able to help you find out what you need to know. and shes very nice, lol.
if I were you, I'd do lots of research into the state of midwifery where you live. Is it licensed? Are there indigenous peoples nearby? If so, who assists their deliveries? I'd also seriously consider a planned unassisted homebirth, even if afterwards you have to lie and say labor went so fast you just didn't have time to make it to the hospital. Homebirth is suprisingly safe, when planned ahead of time, and much less traumatic than anything you can possibly experience in any hospital setting. Don't let the cost deter you, you deserve to have the birth experience you want, no matter what! my midwives worked with me on the payments, and I ended up not paying as much as they had originally told me it would cost. You have to live with the memory of it forever. Try www.midwiferytoday.com and www.gentlebirth.org as good starting places to get more information. yes, it is a proven fact that fear and intimidation greatly increase the amount of pain a woman experiences during labor and delivery. Not to mention doctor interventions and overly-managed deliveries also are much more painful than childbirth should be otherwise. That's why so many women birthing in hospitals need pain medications. Very few women who have planned and are perfectly at ease with homebirth experience pain so severe that they feel they must transfer to the hospital just for drugs! good luck! You can have the birth experience you desire and deserve to have!!
