Labor Tips for Labor Day

Because I am not an expert on birth but I have had a few... Here's a few tips to help you achieve a natural labor:

1. Accept the fact that there's probably going to be some pain. (all the women that have had natural births are laughing to themselves now) Alright.. chances are there's going to be a lot of pain. But the best way to prepare is not to run and hide from it. Accept it and know what you're going to do when that time hits.

2. Read, read, read.  Read every single book you can get your hands on about labor. The biggest difference to me in natural labor with a midwife vs. regular care by an OBGYN is knowledge. Not meaning what they know but about what they want YOU to know.  Many women that birth with an OBGYN in a big hospital don't understand what's happening with their bodies or why because the OBGYN  doesn't ask them to read or prepare. They just go to the hospital and do what they're told. I'm all for obeying (ask my kids) but it's your body, don't ask anyone else to be prepared for you.

3.  Show your husband BEFORE labor how he can help you. There's a book called, The Birth Partner, that is great along with many classes. If it's your first time labor and you just don't know then ask your midwife to give him some hints at one of your visits. Then practice the different actions like lower back pressure and swaying before labor. Damion was a much bigger help to me during our last labor because he was more comfortable and knew more of what to do after doing it two other times. Practice makes perfect on the first time.

4. Drink (not alcohol). When you're in labor drink a lot. It helps you feel refreshed and is a great way to keep energy up if you drink more than just water. My favorite was Sweet Leaf Tea's Mint and Honey but that's always my favorite. Enjoying something that I already love so much made it easier. I am a huge Sweet Leaf tea addict. I do accept large donations of mint and honey tea... just letting you know.

5. Hide the clocks. Every time I looked at the clock I would count how many hours I had been in labor and get more and more discouraged. Discouragement leads to doubt which leads to pain. Just hide them and go with the flow. If it's two hours or 20 than you will get the same wonderful pink squirming baby in the end.

6. Remember the end result. Hopefully after labor is over you will have a healthy pink baby to hold and love. During the hardest moments you can think on that fact. Try to keep joy in your heart and then you won't hurt your husband when he's making jokes about how you look in labor. (remember that little scar on your hand honey?)

Now you have the tools to go forth and birth! But hopefully only if you're pregnant (and due). Natural birth is wonderful and I urge you to check it out before you mentally just check it off your list. Be informed. No matter where you birth...or how... just be informed of your choices.

Here's a post about  Why we chose home birth

Happy Labor Day!

Why we chose Home Birth

This is an extremely pro home birth, anti hospital blog today. If you choose to read it, please do not get offended. Everyone chooses their own birth and this is just the beliefs that led me to choose home birth.

Whenever I tell anyone that we had both girls here at our home, we always get a similar response, "wow, you're brave" followed by "what if something would have happened?". First of all, I'm not brave. I'm a chicken, seriously. I can't watch anything scarier than a good romantic comedy and I run faster than the road runner when I see a snake. Bravery has nothing to do with home birth.

I chose home birth because I believe that God gave women a gift of power and strength that no man can understand. That gift is birth.

Almost 7 years ago I was at the hospital for the birth of my first niece. I was so excited and couldn't wait to see her. Something did not seem right to me though. There was no excitement, no one encouraging the women to believe in themselves. There was just medicine and women staying flat on their backs in bed. My brother wasn't involved in the labor, there was no reason to be. My now former sister-in-law had a strong epidural and was laying in bed watching Jerry Springer. I wasn't sure what was missing at the time but I knew that it wasn't what I wanted one day. When I went back the next day to finally be able to hold my niece for the first time she was only brought to the room for a short amount of time and my sister-in-law was offered Vicotin. She could have one or two, whatever she wanted. Once again, I just felt in my heart that I did not want that same experience. I did not want my child taken away to a nursery at all after birth. I didn't want them in the hands of a stranger for the first few hours when I should be the one bonding with them. I wanted to be able to nurse without giving the baby drugs that were in my system. It was a very eye opening experience. By today's standards, it was a great birth with nothing going wrong. But I knew that I just wanted different.

I started researching online different birth options and had my heart set on a birth center birth even before I was married! ha! Birth centers basically give you the same experience as home birth except you are at a facility that is made to look homey but is not your home. In freestanding birth centers, apart from a hospital, there are no drugs or medical interventions. Most hospitals today are calling their birth wings, birth centers. This is no where near the same thing. They may offer you natural birth but they will still have all the medical interventions available and more than ready to be used if the labor is not progressing quick enough. Sorry for the rabbit trail.

I wanted a birth center because I was too chicken to have a baby at my house! I told you I was a chicken.

When we found out that we were pregnant with out first child, Damion humored me by visiting a birth center with me. I poured over literature from the Internet about the pros and cons of a natural birth vs. a hospital birth and then passed that information onto His Royal Highness. We decided to use the birth center at first but later had conflicts with the midwife there and left the center while we were still very early in the pregnancy. The next closest birth center was over an hour away and I didn't want to drive that far in labor. So our only option left was a home birth.

We quickly found our future midwife, Cathy Rude, who gave me my now favorite book named "A Thinking Woman's Guide to Better Birth" by Henci Goer. I have read this book many times now and I would read it again but someone has my copy. The book confirmed for me what I had felt in my spirit. Basically the book is extremely natural birth and anti hospital. It really is. But it gave me a clear picture of the interventions that hospitals use and I knew that God gave me the power not to need the interventions for a healthy birth. (*note - there are some births that are not health that need the hospital and I am thankful for that option to be there, if needed)

What I have found in research and through friends since this first book is that many times doctors want your birth to be on their time table, and not your bodies time. Not all doctors are this way, but many are. Many times the intervention process begins with a doctor recommending induction because either they will say that the baby is getting too large or you're too close to 40 weeks. Let's remember that it is alright to have your baby at 40 weeks. So they will admit you to the hospital for induction. The second you step into the hospital, you are on a timer. They normally give women 12 hours to have a baby or they will label you "failure to progress" and give you a lovely C-section. Pitocin, the medicine given to stimulate contractions and labor, is a very hard drug that gives you unrealistic contractions. Women will have to have an epidural if you have pitocin. An epidural can many times mess with the babies heart rate, slowing it down a little. This is a cause for concern and can land you in a C-section. If the epidural does not effect the baby than many times the pitocin can be too hard on the baby because of the hard contractions. Again this causes heart problems for the baby or fetal distress. At this point you will either land in a C-section or they will say that the baby has to come out now and you have to push. The epidural can make pushing hard which causes them to use the vacuum or forceps and definitely do a nice episiotomy. If any of this except the epidural sounds appealing, let me know. So then your baby will be delivered and possibly still be sleepy from the epidural. There are times that women enter the hospital, are given and epidural and have a great healthy baby the way that they want to. This is great for them but I've always known that it is not what I wanted.

Think about your friends and how many women are now induced. The numbers are staggering. How many women are threatened with a C-section if they are not progressing fast enough for the hospital? Then look at the numbers of healthy women that have C-sections. The numbers are through the roof. I really can only think of one friend of mine that refused an induction and went into labor naturally within the last two years. I might be wrong, correct me if I am.

I know that God gave me the power to have my children and that doctors weren't needed as long as my pregnancy was healthy and no problems were present during my labor. HRH and myself chose to stay home and birth with midwives. I loved being back in my own bed immediately after labor. I loved knowing that this was my home that I shared with my husband and that this is where our first and second children would be born. Our children were born in the time that my body needed to have them and born so alert. It was a blessed experience. Now I know that if I could do that with God's help, I can knock down the walls of Jericho.

Some great resources to help explore more about natural birth are:
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Birth by Henci Goer (book)
The Business of Being Born by Ricki Lake (DVD)
www.christianmidwife.net - midwifery services of Cathy Rude
www.fruitfulvinemidwifery.com - midwifery services of Natalie Womack
www.houbirth.org