Home Birth Vs. Hospital Birth

Don't take me as a crazy hippie freak with peace and flowers... because I'm not. I think that is a pretty common misconception about people that are interested in home birth.

I did want a home birth. I wanted a huge celebration of the live that I was bringing into the world. I wanted the comfort of my own bed... my own home. I wanted my husband to be able to cuddle with me in bed or in a tub. I wanted my sister and nieces to be able to be there with me. I wanted my little boy's daddy to catch him!

THAT is what you get in an ideal home birth. Not everything is peaches though. It doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes there are complications. Sometimes things don't turn out the way that we want them to.

The reason that I chose to have a home birth is because I was devastated at the birth of my nieces and nephews by the way that they treated the baby and mom during labor and after birth. The nurses were quite rough with my niece. I remember they tugged and pulled on her limbs. They put goopy stuff in her eyes. She was screaming, naked and cold on a table. My 14 year old mind was blown.

When I first got pregnant, there was no way that I wanted a home birth. Are you kidding me? It took me 10 years to finally be able to even grow a baby. There was no way that I was going to risk my baby's life. I was going to be in a hospital where they could quickly save us. Then I remembered my sister-in-law's births.. and my 29 year old mind was blown all over again.

I chose midwives that I trust and decided that we were close enough to a hospital in the very rare case we might need one. Things didn't work out the way I wanted. I did end up in the hospital. I got the complete opposite idea of what I wished for.

The bottom line is, you have to be where you are comfortable where you are. If being in the hospital is going to make you feel safe... go that route. If you are going to be more comfortable and less stressed out at home, do that. Don't let anybody make that decision for you. Don't let anybody judge you for your decisions. Gather all the information and make the best decision for you and your baby.

I would love to hear about your birth experiences or wishes! Please feel free to comment below.

Things to do with your placenta.

I'm late again. But, it's not Wednesday so I'm considering myself ahead for the week. I have company coming in this week and I decided to rip up my carpet spur of the moment. I'm awesome like that.

I planned to write about placenta this week! Fun.

I'm sure you've heard about the trend of embracing the placenta. I have to say, I was grossed out by the idea of placenta when I was younger. I just had no idea how cool it was! I probably acquired that sense during art school... feminist art or something. Women proud of their menses and such.

Anyway, here are a few fun things you can consider to do with your placenta!

Encapsulation:

I encapsulated my placenta. There is a study going on in Las Vegas right now involving placenta consumption. I can't honestly say that encapsulating my placenta helped me but only because I don't know what it's like to not take placental pills after having a baby. Some women feel that it helps with postpartum depression and milk production. Like I said, I can't attest to it personally but some women swear by it. I say, it doesn't hurt to try it. It doesn't hurt.. but I will say those pills don't taste very good. :/

Smoothie:

Some people are brave.. far braver than I and they just blend up that bad boy in a smoothie and drink it up. I suppose this is a more potent and therefor better option? I don't know. It sounds not that delicious to me..... especially since I tasted the pills. I'm a wimp, I know. I envy the women that can do this.

Plant it:

This is old news I guess but I kind of like the idea. I'm considering the idea with my next because I have so many pills left over from my first. So, you can plant the placenta and grow a tree or something that will thrive off of the placenta. It's poetic. It's something to show the little sucker that lived in it too. :)

Placenta Prints:

This is something you can do along with the other options, you would just do it first. Get some really good art paper and just press the placenta onto it. The prints are gorgeous. This is kind of what I was talking about when I mentioned feminist art. I just love the idea. You can frame that bad boy and display it. Gross your friends out... or impress them.

Now you have all kinds of fun plans for your next little baby sack. I would love to hear if you have any other ideas!


Check out Cozzie Corinne for an inspiriting tattoo idea. She's blogging about infertility as well.

Give Polkadots and Bunkergear for a super cute Valentine's decoration idea!

You need a Doula

I'm late again.. I should have made this goal for Wednesdays instead of Monday. Sorry. Shtuff happens.

Let me start of by saying, I did not have a Doula at my first birth. Well.. sort of. It's complicated. I didn't sign up for a Doula. I did have a midwife who has been a Doula for a lot of years though so she functioned as a Doula. She and her midwife partner along with my husband took care of me.

What is a Doula? Technically, the word means female slave... Coming from a soft feminist, I actually like the definition because that is exactly what it is. Doulas serve a birthing mother. I could go into further detail and try to explain what my interpretation of a Doula actually is, but I feel like that isn't doing you a favor. Doulas are personal to your birth experience. They are exactly whatever it is that you need.

Here are 5 reasons I now know that I NEED a Doula at my next birth.

1) They keep their wits about them for you:During DONA training, we are told that we need to have unconditional love for our pregnant and birthing mothers because we may be the only place they receive this. At the same time, we aren't to get personally attached so that we can function as your advocate. It's really easy to say that you want a natural, drug free, non induced pregnancy and birth but when it comes down to it, 10 months feels really fat and gross and there are some pretty intense times during labor where you just may want to give up on your plans. Your Doula will do everything in her power to help you have the birth experience that you intended to have with her. She will remind you and comfort you through the intensity. She will also know when to say when. If a change of plans is needed, she is there to support you through that as well.

2) They've done this before....:Doulas attend a lot of births with varying experiences. Doulas accompany mothers through extremely different pregnancies. Essentially, they have heard it all. Your Doula is on call for you from 2 weeks before your baby is due, until you have babe in arms. Towards the end, you might feel like you need some relief. *Your Doula can suggest yoga positions or exercises that may help relieve pressure. Doulas can also assist in minor breast feeding ailments.

There is no need to be embarrassed about whatever happens to fly out of your body during labor in the presence of a Doula. Yeah, she's seen it before. It's cool. She can also help keep other people in the room calm and maintain a peaceful birthing room.

*Always ask your care provider before taking any supplements, even something recommended by a Doula as Doulas are not allowed to prescribe.

3) In a word.. massage:One of the fun things about Doula training is that we get to practice massage on each other. We get kinda good at it. ;) Doulas know techniques that will help your body release natural pain killers which will help you succeed in having your drug free, natural childbirth. They can also teach your partner some of these techniques so the can tag team your limbs if that is what you need to make it through. 

4) They advocate for your birth plan:You've spent a lot of time figuring out just how you want your birth to go. Whether you want things all natural, or a planned c-section, your Doula is there to advocate for whatever it is you need. She can direct you to research which will arm you to face medical staff when they come in wanting to poke you against your wishes. She can toss the towel on the ground that nurses place on your chest before baby is born. She can fight for you. Nurses are sometimes intimidated by Doulas for this very reason but a good Doula brings a gift basket and turns the nurse to her side. :)

5) Doula attended births are proven to have less intervention:

According to evidencebasedbirth.com “Overall, women who received continuous support were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and less likely to have any pain medication, epidurals, negative feelings about childbirth, vacuum or forceps-assisted births, and C-sections. In addition, their labors were shorter by about 40 minutes and their babies were less likely to have low Apgar scores at birth.” http://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-Doulas/

This post just touched on some things that I find important about a Doula but please feel free to research for yourself. You should always feel comfortable with the Doula you pick. It may be an extra expense but in the long run you are very likely to save time and money. 

Feel free to comment below with suggestions or just to say hi.. or whatever.:)

Are you sporting the bump? If you are, you should check out Joy for some gender reveal party ideas and printables! 

Also, check out Polka Dots and Bunker for some tips on grocery budgeting.

Thanks for reading!

A little essay about Midwifery

So I started off on the wrong foot here. I'm a day late. This was supposed to be posted yesterday! Ha! Well, here it is today. This is an essay I wrote as sort of a screening to get into the Midwife School that I'm attending. It reflects my opinion regarding the history of midwifery based on the research I have done thus far.

I believe that the foundation that old midwifery has created should continue to be our informational pool to draw from. Less intervention results in a happier and more successful birth experience. According to midwiferytoday.com, the early1700's and before, promised women a fearless birth. There was a positive live birth rate and therefor nothing for women to be afraid of. Instead, they looked forward to bringing new life into the world. Being that women gave birth in their homes, instead of hospitals which were ridden with disease, there was a decreased risk of infection which naturally resulted in better outcomes for both mom and baby.

As stated on neonatology.org, the idea that birth was a medical issue rose and so women that could afford it started seeing physicians for their birthing needs. Coincidentally, the live birth rate was higher for physician assisted births than midwife births. This was probably because the wealthier people (who were also healthier since they had access to a better diet and living conditions in general) were seeing physicians and the less healthy, poorer people saw midwives. However, Birthsong discusses the fact that there were more women dying after childbirth due to infection after hospital births than in home births.

As medicine evolved, so did childbirth. Interventions enabled women to give birth successfully that would otherwise not have been able to. These practices became common and essentially pushed midwifery and natural birth out of the way all together. According to Birthsong, this could have resulting in bone structure problems in women as well because women that should have been unable to birth children were suddenly able to, thus passing along the gene to their daughters and so on. This would have caused an increase in the number of interventions as well. I feel that our culture is at a strange point on the midwifery time line. As a culture, we are afraid of birth. There does seem to be a positive turn around the corner but for the time being, we are in an age of designer birth days and pain free birth.

It is my hope that we will make a return to old midwifery, where we will empower women to trust their bodies and birth fearlessly. We should be able to draw upon the evidence and facts that we trusted before and set aside the unnecessary interventions. I am drawn to midwifery in part because it is not about making money. Obviously there is profit to be had, as all services should. Midwifery is about supporting women in their natural abilities to give birth and assisting when needed. This is exactly what I hope to do. I hope that we are able to see what the evidence suggests and return to simplicity. I hope that we can unlearn the fear that we have learned about pregnancy and childbirth and get away from the stigmas that we learned during the dark ages. I believe that we will make the journey back to a simpler time as we begin to influence and empower more women to advocate for themselves to get the birth experiences that they want. Midwifery is growing again and I believe that our culture will grow with it.  

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions in the comments below.

Check out Joy Is at Home for some cool printable flash cards for your toddler and Raising Bushs for some menu planning ideas!

My blogging goals for 2014

I am participating in a blogging bootcamp because I would love to develop my skills and style. What better way than to submerge myself in it? Blogging is a healing concept for me, not only as a reader but from the writing perspective. I believe it has given me a handle on my thoughts.

I'll start with the questions below.

1) What are your 2014 blogging goals?

I would really like to blog in a more regular fashion. I have found that the last few months and flown by so quickly and in hind site, there have been many opportunities I have missed to document and share. By the time I feel like I want to write, it's old news to me... strange.

In 2014, I am going to make time for myself to share my experiences with grief especially. I know that reading other bereaved parents' blogs has helped me so much and I really feel like it's my duty to share also. I am also going to document my journey to midwifery better. This might be a personal concept that people aren't interested to read about but my experience is different than others'.

2) Set up your method of blogging organization. Is it a planner, iCal, a free printable you found on Pinterest, or only in your head? Where are you writing down all the great blog post ideas that come to you but you don't have the immediate time to blog? What are you going to use in 2014?

Organizing my blog ideas... I hadn't thought about this until right now. What I'm going to do is use the calender in my phone since it's the only item I can guarantee that I will always have with me. This way I can document all of the ideas and also have them placed on the calender for later writing.

3) Sit down and write your January editorial calender. Is this something you've ever done before?

I have never created any kind of editorial calender. I love this idea. It will help keep me on track. For January, I am going to plan a blog once a week. Monday will be my tentative blog day. I decided to theme my January blog posts. This month I am going to write about topics involving birth. I'm a doula and currently undergoing a midwife apprenticeship so this will be a rich and meaty topic for me that I will certainly love to talk about.

So there you have it. My plans for January 2014. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. I look forward to interacting with my readers in this new year. :)

Thanks to Launderlife for the questions!