We Had To Hire A Midwife…
Despite the fact that we have good insurance and live only two minutes from the one of the largest hospitals in Maine, Richard and I have been forced to hire a midwife so we can deliver our new baby (#5!) at home. It’s a long story that I’ll try to detail this weekend. Basically, the local hospitals won’t allow VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean), even if the doctor doesn’t feel it’s in the patient’s best interests to go through that major surgery. We feel my doctor and his nurse weren’t honest with us about the situation and we had to find out information about what was really going on from other parties.
Once we learned the doctor wasn’t giving us all the facts, we could no longer trust him. So, we had three choices: 1. have another cesarean because the hospital basically says they get to cut you open or you can’t have your baby there; 2. hire a doctor from out of town and pray I don’t have the baby on the side of the road while traveling to the out-of-town hospital; 3. hire a midwife and have the baby at home. We, of course, opted for #3. We shopped around and found a local midwife with several years of emergency room experience. She’s licensed and certified, etc. and we really, really like her.
Anyway, as I stated above, I’ll write more details this weekend. If you or someone you know has had a VBAC, I’d love to hear from you. We’re not getting any home birth support from family members (heck, they already call us the family hippies anyway). Honestly, my biggest fear is uterine rupture, but that only happens in 1 out of 580 VBACs. Other than that, I think I can handle it. Lord knows, I’ve birthed babies without drugs before! And, if something does go awry, we’re only 2 minutes from the hospital and, at that point, they would have to admit me and take care of us. They can’t turn you away at the door if you’re already in labor or if you’ve just given birth.
Oh, and yes, that Izzy (Isabella Katherine Hoy) there on the right-hand side of your screen. Boy oh boy, are we in for a shocker if she turns out to be a he!! (12-week sonogram wasn’t exactly crystal clear.)
Hugs!
Angela
January 21st, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Angela,
I’m a writer who also teaches in the Midwifery Department at Bastyr University, the pre-eminent naturopathic medical school in the country. I’m a psychologist, not a midwife, but from what I’ve learned from my midwife-colleagues, VBAC with well trained midwives is quite sensible, done all the time. And home births are in many ways safer than hospital deliveries, when pregnancy and delivery are within normal limits. Congratulations for finding a midwife. We, your readers, look forward to reading about your experiences.
All the best,
Dr Deah
February 20th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Hi Angela, I just wanted to say Hi *waves*. You asked for stories and I included a link ( http://www.freewebs.com/youhaverights/mystory.htm ) to my vbac attempt story. I bet after reading it, you’ll be even more sold on the idea of a homebirth VBAC. In my hospital vbac attempt, among other things, I was flat out lied to about my progression by the dr and staff and of course given the same old scare tactics to trick me into a completely unnecessary repeat (my first section was planned due to a birth defect my first daughter had). I know that if I had gone with a homebirth like my gut had told me that I would have had a successful, beautiful natural vbac. We’ll be having a hba2c next time around. You’ll do awesome and you won’t regret it. I’m thinking of you and I hope you don’t mind if I check back in occassionally to follow your story. Best of luck and take care,
Lauren