Today Margaret had a well-baby check with the midwife: four-and-a-half days old and she's dropped to 7 lbs 10 oz (still 6 oz down) and she's doing beautifully.
I also got a well-mama check from the midwife. One of the aspects I love so much about the midwifery model of care is the one-on-one relationship. I've enjoyed it at all our meetings, in which the midwife is caring for my body but also my soul and heart. Our first postpartum check was no exception: My midwife visited me in the comfort of my own home and we talked for an hour about my labor (including anything emotional I wanted to process), motherhood (my midwife is a mother of eight so far), adjusting family life with each new baby, our shared faith--anything I needed to talk about! I wasn't rushed through or ignored and there was no condescension from my care provider if I had any feelings about my labor experience. I feel so blessed (beyond blessed) to be able to enjoy the midwifery model of care for one more pregnancy, and I know that it is a new question with every pregnancy whether I will remain low risk--something I don't take for granted.
We tried out a sling today, so Margaret rode around in my Moby Wrap for a while and loved it. I forgot how much I appreciate the Moby for newborns!
...likes this. (Always looking for the shortcut of the 'Like' button! LOL) Margaret is absolutely beautiful, and thank you for posting pictures. It's great to hear about a wonderful birth experience as well as the positive aspects of both home delivery and midwifery. Your midwife sounds awesome. Congratulations again!
ReplyDeleteI kind of anvy you (in a good way) that you were able to deliver at home. That takes a lot of courage and preparation.
ReplyDeleteMarina et al.: Thanks! I was meditating on the point you make about preparation for home birth, in particular, in the last couple of months of pregnancy. Doing a home birth calls for a whole different kind of preparation. In a hospital setting, a mother can choose--if she wants--not to take so much as one birth course or ask her OB about any of his statistics on rates of interventions: she can just to show up and trust all these strangers with her labor. With a home birth, the parents have to (or "should") really do deep research into all aspects of birth complications, plus then their practical and spiritual preparedness for how they would deal with those unexpected outcomes.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the pragmatic aspect that a home birth mama has to think through every little step, determine what she might need, and procure all those supplies--all those little things the hospital has on hand that one might not think of.
Then there is a bit of "jumping into the deep" with faith in one's own body--something that also takes spiritual preparedness. I haven't written a G-rated version of my birth story for the blog yet, but I will point out here that by the end of prolonged pushing, I would have consented in a heartbeat to forceps, vacuum, or C/S if they had been offered--which they almost definitely would have been in a hospital setting. And since very few OBs use forceps or vacuum anymore, I might well have ended up with a C/S (due to hospital impatience), yet look how unnecessary that would have been in retrospect. Margaret and I were always fine, I just had to be a lot stronger than I wanted to be.
There were times earlier in my motherhood that I felt more political about home birth than I do now. I truly don't think hospitals or OBs are evil or bad, I know they are necessary, and I know that home birth is not for everyone, not even for all low-risk women. I just wish so much that the hospital setting adopted more of the mother-and-baby-friendly aspects of the midwifery model of care.
I, too find it sad that more hospitals do not adopt a more natural approach to birthing. I was lucky to deliver in California which tends to be more "new age" in it's approach to birthing. I also made sure to pick my doctor carefully so our ideas of delivery and birth were in sync with each other. That is why I was confident that delivering in the hospital would not mean I would have unnecessary interventions. I was able to deliver all three of my children naturally with no drugs, no episiotomy, no "help" with pushing, and the baby always stays right there in the room with you, even immediately after the birth. After watching many episodes of "A Baby Story" I realized that this is not the case in many/most hospitals. I am so glad your birth experience with Mary and Margaret were so positive. I treasure the memory of all three of my deliveries and know how important it is to feel like they mostly went well and in the way you had hoped for. Margaret is adorable, and the kids are being so precious with her! I love seeing all the sweet pictures!
ReplyDeleteI use a midwife as well, except give birth in the hospital, and I agree with you about normal OBs. With my last I was begging for them just to cut me open, and my midwife informed me that that would NOT be happening, and encouraged me to push. I can't imagine not having the midwife.
ReplyDeleteOh, in the new pics of Margaret, I think she looks just like you!
Can't wait for the whole birth story :-) But in the mean time just keep posting those beautiful baby pics!
ReplyDeleteRachel: I know just what you mean about California's birthing atmosphere. Statistics show that the South is the "worse" (from a natural perspective) and the West is the best. I remember talking to a childhood friend of mine who is an OBGYN in California and she had at that time done something like five episiotomies in her career, so she was horrified to hear that it is not uncommon to find OBs here in the South who still find that the majority of their patients "need" an episiotomy. The annual C/S stats just came out for all the hospitals in Atlanta and, with one "good" exception of around 20%, all the other hospitals hovered a lot closer to 40%, when the World Health Orgazniation has calculated that the necessary C/S rate to save women and babies is lower than 10%. Birthing mamas have to be such strong advocates for themselves in certain pockets of the country!
ReplyDeletewait, there's an uncut and unrated version of your birth story and I haven't seen it yet? fix fix fix!
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