Hey Friends!
Today is Monday December 18, 2017 and I am currently 39 weeks pregnant. I thought this blog post would be the perfect opportunity to talk about some of Phillip and I’s choices for the upcoming birth of our sweet girl. I do want to preface this by saying that any way a child is brought into this world is beautiful and amazing! Each and every momma does what she feels is right and best for her and her baby and I think there is no disputing this. The views I am about to express in this blog are what Phillip and I feel are best for me and our children.
If I had to sum up what I am looking for in a birth experience it would be to have an unmedicated and non intervention birth. There are several things that are important to make this possible. The very first thing we can talk about is induction. I will not be even thinking about the possibility of induction until we reach 42 weeks of pregnancy. I am a firm believer that baby will come when baby is ready. Believe me she will not be in there forever. I will be getting non stress tests and ultrasounds to check on baby from 40-42 weeks and as long as she looks good then we will let her keep on cooking. There are some natural things we will be doing to help encourage her to come and these include things like nipple stimulation, intercourse, herbal teas, etc. Once I hit 42 weeks then we might consider induction, but even then I am unsure if I would do it.
Now for some of our preferences for labor. I will be giving birth at a birth center here in Nashville. I will not be having any sort of IV or any medicaiton. They actually don’t even offer those things at our birth center. Now before everyone starts saying “it’s so painful…just you wait until the pain kicks in….etc”, I know it will be painful. I am not ignoring that. I am choosing however to have a different mindset about it. Instead of looking at contractions as this painful experience, I am choosing to look at it as a wave (also calling it a wave instead of contraction) of energy that I will ride out. Each and every single wave gets me closer and closer to meeting my baby girl. With this mindset each wave becomes something that I am doing to get my baby here. It no longer is something that is happening to me or causing me pain. Your mind plays a huge part in your birthing experience. Never underestimate the mind! Since I will not have any IVs or medication I will be free to move as much as I would like. So we plan to move a ton and try different positions and include different things like squats, birthing balls and peanuts, birthing stools, a birthing tub, etc. For someone like myself who is always on the go and needs to be doing something, this will be very beneficial to me. If I’m moving then I will feel that I am doing something to help this process along.
Our next big thing is no episiotomy, vacuum, or forceps. This is a personal choice to me. I have looked up several different things to do in place of these items. I am choosing to tear naturally vs these interventions. I am also choosing to try different birthing positions to avoid these interventions if she does have shoulder dystocia.
Once she is born there are several things we are wanting as well. First off the birthing center has a policy of allowing four hours of uninterrupted time after birth. This means that no one, including doctors, nurses, family, etc will brother you for that time frame. Phillip and I plan to spend this time just bonding with Penelope. What a special time! We will be doing immediate skin-to-skin contact. I will also deliver the placenta and Penelope will stay attached to the placenta for however long it takes to stop pulsing and to turn white. There are so many important benefits to this. There are stem cells that will get passed back to her during this time that will help to heal any trauma she might have experienced during the birth. This is especially important because we will not be doing the vitamin k shot at birth. We will have oral vitamin k on hand though if needed. We will also not be doing the eye ointment. The reason they do this is to lessen the risk of chlamydia and gonorrhea that could be passed to the baby. Since I know that I don’t have either of those then there really isn’t a need for it. Lastly we will be delaying her Hep B shot until her first round of vaccines that she gets at a few months old.
Other small things we will be doing is we will not be wiping her vernix off at birth, we will be delaying her bath for the first few days, we will be exclusively breastfeeding, and we’ll delay her exams at birth until after that four hour period.
To close I would like to say we of course know that these things can change once labor starts, however we only plan on changing our minds on these things if it is a life or death situation. At that point we will of course do anything we can to keep both our baby and myself safe. We do plan to labor for as long as possible at home before heading to the birth center. Studies have shown that the less time you spend at the hospital the less interventions happen. I am so excited about the labor process and I honestly can’t wait to see what my body is able to do. I am a firm believer that I can do this and I was meant for this. This is not something that is happening to me. This is something that I am choosing to do. Again I would just like to say that these views are only what we feel is the best for us and we do not judge anyone for how they choose to bring their babies into this world. It is a very personal choice and as long as mom and baby are happy and healthy then there is nothing else that matters. I hope that my next blog is all about our birth story!
“Remember that each labor contraction is caused by a wave of Oxytocin (the love hormone) coursing through your body. So, very literally, each birthing surge is a surge of love. Allow yourself to meet each surge with the same warmth, intimacy and acceptance that you would experience during a kiss or a loving embrace.” ~Lauralyn Curtis
“The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you, because it is you.” ~ Unknown
Baby Dust To All,
Cynthia
Joy Comes In The Morning 