Why I chose to stay out of the hospital

This is what I see every time I go to a prenatal appointment and I think it is awesome.

Almost everyone I know has given birth in the hospital.  Growing up I sort of assumed that this was the only place to give birth.  After I got married and started to really research conception, pregnancy and birth I found out that I was so wrong.  I was introduced into this community of all these women who were saying "Get me the hell out of the hospital!"  I started by watching The Business of Being Born.  This is a documentary that Ricki Lake made about options in childbirth.  It was shocking to me since this was the very beginning of my journey on learning about birth in America.  It also showed me the path that usually happens when interventions are introduced during labor.  Ultimately ending in a c-section 33% of the time in America.  Before I go any further I would like to stress that this is my opinion and what was best for my situation.  Everyone has their best place to give birth, I just wish people would spend time researching what that is instead of following in their mother's and sister's foot steps.  I write this in hopes that you will at least consider an out or hospital birth, because it is working so much better in other countries.  The United States ranks very poorly compared to other regions that have the majority of births out of hospital.

After watching this documentary I dove into the internet to figure out how I would be able to avoid the hospital and doctors if and when I became pregnant.  I immediately decided that a home birth was going to be best for me, Dufda on the other hand was not convinced that this was a good idea. What happens if something goes wrong? Everyone asked this, when the reality is that most things that "go wrong" in birth are due to the interventions that are introduced, not the women's ability to give birth.  I had only known one woman ever who birthed at home.  She had a wonderful experience and loved birthing children.  She was my inspiration.  I had told people that I would like to do a home birth and I got the same answer pretty much across the board: You're crazy!  I even had someone tell me that natural birth isn't as safe as medicated hospital birth.  Not as safe?  There are no long term studies that show the effects of Pitocin and epidural anesthesia on a child, so we have no idea if we are harming them.  These drugs have serious side effects and disadvantages though.  For one, you are strapped to your bed, which has to be super uncomfortable.  Drop in blood pressure, severe headache, shivering, ringing of the ears, backache, nausea, difficulty urinating, pushing may be more difficult, trouble with the newborn latching, lethargic baby, and newborn respiratory distress just to name a few.  Now it doesn't make sense to me that we are going to deprive ourselves of pain medication while pregnant to keep baby safe, but as soon as that baby is ready to be born, we are going to pump ourselves full of medication.  People wanted to scare me into their normal.  When someone talks to me about their emergency c-section, I keep repeating in my head: We were made to do this, This is good pain, This is productive pain, I am suppose to give birth naturally. I was not going to have it or let it phase me.  Specially because like most people these individuals had not spent one lick of time actually looking into child birth, they only had the hearsay that came from older mothers, sisters and of course our media.  I know now you are probably saying, oh just wait till you go into labor.  Yes, I am a naive first time mom who had not experienced the miracle of birth yet.  I believe that fear, first and foremost, will make my best birth impossible.  I refuse to let others instill their fear in me.

Inside of an exam room

I started trying to find a home birth midwife prior to being pregnant.  The laws will differ from each state, but here in PA they make it very difficult to have your baby at home.  I did find a woman who would be willing to attend my birth though.  We met while Dufda was out of the country and I didn't click with her completely, but I was willing to take that chance and go with her anyway.  All of my plans had come crashing down when I learned the floor to my house was going to have to be reinforced in order to have a home birth and support the birth tub.  I needed a new option now.

They keep a list of every baby born within the month, I love reading this when I wait for my appointments.

 I looked for awhile and then I finally came across The Midwife Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.  I called them and set up an orientation as well as my first appointment.  Dufda and I attended that orientation and he was removed from the situation.  He had told me over and over again that I should be in the hospital.  I told one of his sisters I was planning to birth out of the hospital and she thought I was crazy and said, "No, you will want to be around all the doctors!"  Doctors were just what I did not want to be around, for I was not sick or harboring of some condition that is treatable. 

I can't wait to see this sign on my door!

 Anyways, Dufda was annoyed that it took so long and that the orientation had to be held by a nurse and not a real midwife, because said midwife was birthing a baby at that moment downstairs.  This did not deter me, because him along with most guys are very clueless when it comes to childbirth.  They are exposed to the media that says you should be in the hospital.  I was not going to let anyone's ignorance deter me from having my best birth.  This may sound harsh, because he is my husband and half creator of this baby, but I write this because most husbands are going to have the same reservations about women wanting to leave the "super safe" confines of the hospital.  I believe that he will come around and "get it' when our little boy is born.  Dufda's fears were that he would be the only one there with me and he didn't know if he could actually handle childbirth.  I had told him that my mother wouldn't be present because I was not comfortable having her in the room, nor she comfortable being there.  I compromised and invited a friend and this made Dufda way more at ease, but the battle isn't over with him and his attachment to the hospital.

This is the family kitchen that is available when you are giving birth

I am very thankful to have chosen The Midwife Center because I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds between hospital and home.  I have been so sick throughout my pregnancy that I would not have the access to Zofran if I were to have a home birth, but at the same time I have a huge say in what testing I am and am not comfortable with.  Everything has been approached by, "Would you like to have this completed?"  There is nothing mandatory at The Midwife Center, except for my support person to attend one prenatal visit and we must sit through childbirth classes.  I had blood work done, that came out completely normal.  I refused the genetic testings but I did opt for an anatomy scan.  At each appointment I go to they ask about me, my husband, our home life, and the whole picture.  I do not have anything to compare this to, because I have never seen an OB/GYN, but I know my team of midwives are very in tuned with my whole well being.  Another important reason that I chose to use a natural, low intervention setting is that midwives are able to adapt to your normal.  That normal could be totally different than the next girl that walks in the room, and they are completely o.k with that.

The setup at The Midwife Center is so similar to home that you just can't help but love being there.  The waiting room has comfy couches, the birth rooms have huge beds with a jacuzzi style tub.  Everything is just quaint and the way that I think it should be.  I hate the smell of the doctor's offices, and this place has none of that.

When you are a patient of The Midwife Center, you are advised to tour UPMC Mercy since that is where they would transfer to if there was an emergency.  I have this set up, but have not attended yet.  The Midwife Center as well as most midwife practices typically carry a better set of statistics than hospitals. The national average for a c-section is at 33%, while at The Midwife Center it is only 12%.  They hold better statistics in preterm birth and birth weight as well.  I believe that this is because they are looking at your lifestyle and how it pertains to this pregnancy and what they are considering is normal for you.  If I go "past due" I get to wait a lot longer than a hospital patient before I am pumped with pitocin to induce labor.  If I labor for an extended period of time, I am given more options than an emergency c-section.  I have been told already my baby is large, never once did this turn into you might be to small to birth him, although I was just 114 lbs, with a small frame pre-pregnancy.  

People ask me a lot if I am scared to give birth, and since I have found this great place to care for me while I am pregnant, it is the complete opposite.  I am more than excited to labor and birth my baby, the way women have done for years before me.