Thursday marks the last week of my first trimester. Surprise!
13 weeks have honestly never gone simultaneously more slow or quickly. Although baby H was a surprise, I always knew exactly how I wanted my pregnancy and labor to go... duh, midwifery student.
Now, I had been part of many conversations with actual midwives about hospital versus home birth practice and saw a major difference in the way that each practiced. I can now say that I've experienced each.
I started the pregnancy with my regular OB office. Within 11 weeks, I had been through 3 ultrasounds and a slew of bloodwork. On the second ultrasound, they saw a hematoma. I got a phone call telling me this and to simply refrain from sex. They didn't educate me on what it was, what risk there was to my baby, etc. As a chronic overthinker, my mind went to the absolute worst place. I was seeing a midwife, I thought. Why, then did I still feel as helpless and uneducated as if I were part of the typical OB hoard? Speaking with her previous to being pregnant, she had actually admitted that she fell into the sort of rut where she was almost exactly like the ON.
I always knew I would be switching to my current midwife but after the hematoma situation, I was more ready than ever. In fact, I made it abundantly clear that I was just in the office to make sure that the baby was healthy then would be transferring care.
My current midwife practices homebirth and a more hands off approach. During our first meeting, she spoke with Joe more than me, which I really enjoyed. She stressed his role in this pregnancy and my labor. She asked if he had questions and what the birth of his other children had been like. Within the first twenty minutes with this midwife, there was a difference in the level of care. This finally felt like how it was supposed to feel. She has been a nurse midwife for well over thirty years and delivers four to six babies per month. Her transfer rate to hospital for new mom's is about three percent. We are secure in our choice to trust her to help bring our little nugget into the world.
I am excited to continue with our midwife and can't wait to meet baby H.
Your pregnancy journey is your own. Whether you see an OB, a midwife, have an epidural, birth at home, it is a good choice as long as it is an educated one. We're all just doing the best we can, am I right, ladies?
