I love this book! Wonderful!I have my first appointment with a nurse-midwife this afternoon. I am optimistic and hopeful about this experience, having dealt with strictly medical nurses and doctors at the last health facility I was a part of..
My daughter, born eight years ago, was caught by the experienced hands of a Canadian midwife. There were a team of three actually,, and the care I received from them all during my pregnancy was outstanding. Now, if you wish to have a genuine midwife attend your prenatal visits and birth here in the US, you must pay out-of-pocket, something near $4000. Quite out of the question for us at this time, although I did research every option.
So,, we discovered that there were indeed nurse-midwives at a Kaiser facility in the next city. Yay! A new experience, and hopefully a positive, beautiful one.
I am not one who enjoys the medical atmosphere, and indeed, it makes me nervous just thinking about weird interventional machines and such. I am no fool; If there is a problem along the way I am just as grateful as the next person that I have the opportunity to receive a medical quick-fix, especially of it concerns the life of my baby. BUT I know that my body is also quite capable of birthing and I don't need any medical-minded individual to steal looks at a clock to assess my progress or tell me what position to get into or when I need to push. These things, I am confident about. I hate hospital gowns and I don't want any tubes connected to me. In short, being pregnant doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you, so it seems a bit odd to be walking into a hospital in that state. Hmm...
I am determined to, when the time comes, labour at home as long as I can so I can keep my focus. Well, we shall see how it all turns out.
I look forward to this midwife meeting today because I have a load of questions to ask,, and I am hopeful that she will make the time to actually answer them, and not skim over my concerns and then blast out the door for the next patient, as all the other medical practicioners have done.
Yes, we will see.
At any rate, I am reading this wonderful novel, called The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It was recommended to me by an old friend and I am so glad she did so. Living in California, so far from my Mother and sister and girlfriends, I do feel rather lonely and isolated, especially now that I am pregnant. I think it is instinctual for many women to crave the companionship of other women at such a profoundly feminine time in their lives, and I harbour a great sadness that I cannot do this. But,, thank goodness for this great book! It is all about the woman's experience, and has been a great friend to me. I would recommend it to any woman, truly.
On that note, I have my day planned which is new for me (-:
I will go for a morning stroll, Then return home to cut/sew some new baby clothes! I have some great ideas, and I have already made a bunch of patterns. Yay!
How did the appointment go?
ReplyDeleteReally well! I was pretty relieved to hear that the midwives at out particular hospital are very committed to natural birth with as little medical interference as possible...If it all goes smoothly, then they are with you through the whole process, from labour to birth and afterwards, and you need never come in contact with a nurse or doctor (-: They have a labour pool and showers in every room,, so the amenities are certainly good (-: I feel SO much better after talking with her. She was sweet too, and reminded me of my wonderful Canadian midwives.. So yes, the plan is to labour as long as I can at home (I did this with Isabella) and that way, there will be very little chance of any unnecessary medical crap. That was her advice to me, although I had already planned to do so. I think many people get scared and panicky as soon as their labour starts to pick up and that's why they jet to the hospital before they really need to,, I am determined not to fall into this trap.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking Barb (-: xoxo