As many of you know, and many of you might not know, I am in the small 1% of women that has decided to have a home birth (water birth to be specific) with a midwife. I know that many of you might gasp at the thought and wonder why I would possibly make this choice, why I wouldn't take advantage of every bit of technology available to me, why I would want to feel pain that I didn't have to. I've been researching like crazy since I was sixteen years old about how I want to give birth to my baby. Mind you, 2 years of this research was done on dial-up internet, which takes lots of patience. ;)
Seven years of reading, watching and listening down, and I'm still 100% about my decision to have my baby in the the house that we live and love in. (Keep in mind, this is only if my pregnancy continues to stay normal.) I have many reasons for choosing a natural birth in the comfort of our home, but I won't post them all here and I encourage everyone to do their own research and to realize that you DO have choices. I only want pregnant women to know that they have a choice - that there isn't just one way to give birth, and no matter what you choose, do it because it feels right for you and your family and not because it's what everyone else is doing.
I'm so excited to embrace the pain of labor, pain that has a purpose and (at this point) I am not at all fearful of my laboring or birthing experience. Strangely enough, I'm more scared of the pain my breasts will go through while breastfeeding than labor pain.
I'll leave you with an article I just read, because it is written by a Ph.D and it's one of the least controversial that I've read in all my research. It's less granola, less crunchy for all of you that don't like that sort of thing. ;)
Why Women Shouldn't Fear Home Birth
I will also say, please don't leave any crazy scary birth stories as a comment on this post. I realize that they happen, but it's rare, and I'd rather go into this experience with no fear, even if something does end up going wrong.
Momma to be
p.s. My brain somehow managed to turn to mush during this blog and I forgot lots of words existed, so if some words sound a little off..I'M PREGNANT, SO BACK OFF!
I wouldn't even describe it as pain. Yes it hurts but it is not pain. The contractions were easy for me. Pushing is the hard part, not because it hurts but because it requires SOOOOO much effort. I was always like you in that I wanted to feel every bit of childbirth. It is amazing :)
ReplyDeleteI've heard that a lot, Paige! I can't wait to read about your hbac experience!
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