Friday, August 10, 2007

Ramblings

Unfortunately, my dear readers, you are possibly going to be bombarded with Baby #2 preparation posts for a while. I guess they are going to replace the bountiful posts on the wedding (which is 56 days away - freak out ensues!)

Why is choosing how to have your baby such a hard thing to do? Ok, sure, some will argue that it is simply not a choice. Some will say it is simply a case of you have your baby at home if you want to do it successfully, right, safely, etc.

Others will argue that you need to be in a hospital, just in case something goes wrong, to be prepared, to be helped if it is needed.

Many will baulk at that and say "Pay for the hospital ticket, expect the hospital ride".

I still don't know where I fit in on my thoughts. Logically, I see that homebirth is pretty much the best option. I still don't know where I would have fit in with Tara's birth if it had been a home birth. At what point would a HB midwife say "sorry, we need to transfer". I don't know. Who do I ask this to?

I KNOW that women can have successful VBACs in hospital. I know quite a few of them.

The thing is - I still do not know what I feel is the best option for me. I know people rant and rave against one or the other - and that there is not much of a middle ground (Independent midwife in a birth centre?).

Maybe I am not ready to birth a baby yet at all?

How do I process these things? I KNOW the risks of surgery. I experienced MANY of those risks last time, so anyone who tells me I am blind about them is misinformed. They can't tell me I am wrong for being scared of being at home - with the PPH and bloodloss last time, as well as fetal decels (yes, I know many of these are normal - some are not though, and tara had the bad ones...).

I prepared myself so much for Tara's arrival, and still it went haywire. Some was hospital protocol, some was me, some was her.

Where does the line in the sand get drawn? How can I feel comfortable with either decision?

1 comment:

Marieke said...

At what point would a HB midwife say "sorry, we need to transfer". I don't know. Who do I ask this to?

A HB midwife should be able to tell you at what point this would be. And I doubt they would just say what you want to hear either.

They're trained to know when a situation is more than they can handle, and they certainly won't wait just to see and risk your health.

Our current HB midwife told us that (if I'm not misremembering) that while it's rare that she needs to transfer clients to the hospital, it does happen. I think it might have been a 1 in 10 kind of situation. And it happens for a variety of reasons, though most often if the labour just isn't progressing like it ought. And usually they can tell quite a while before things become anything close to critical.

I guess in part it's also a matter of putting your trust in your midwifery team as well. Her/their experience and qualifications and such are important things to know. The more experience they have, the earlier they can tell when there's a situation that needs acting on.

As for the blood loss that you mentioned. Midwives do have the skills and tools with them to be able to stabilise you enough to get you to the hospital (I know our previous midwife had pitocin with her for that). At least, I assume that that's true in the vast majority of cases. Being that you also don't live out in whoop-whoop, you should have relatively close access to a hospital if things do really go haywire.

I don't know... you might have to interview a couple of different midwives to see which one you like better, feel more comfortable with, who can give you the answers that you feel are best/most accurate/most appropriate to your situation.

How can I feel comfortable with either decision?

I think this falls under point 11 from a later post of yours... listen to your heart.

Talking to various caregivers about your options will probably help to make the decision clearer.