So, you’re having a baby. Congratulations! Welcome to the biggest challenge and biggest joy of your life.
You want to have a natural childbirth. People are laughing at you. You’re not sure where to go for support.
Before getting pregnant – if you had asked me – I would have told you that if I ever had a baby I would be the first in line for the epidural. Sign me up, lets go. I knew I didn’t want a c-section – I didn’t want any scars, but give me the drugs… please!
Something changed for me once I had that little one in my belly.
I had carefully chosen my OBGYN prior to getting pregnant, knowing that we would be trying to start our family soon. I talked to friends, researched online and made my selection.
A few months into my pregnancy – I started to have questions… I realized I was in a group practice and unless I went into labour during office hours, the chances of my doctor delivering our baby was pretty small. This was not the experience I wanted.
My mother, a Registered Massage Therapist in Canada, had delivered me and my sister’s naturally, so somewhere along the way I became open to the idea of attempting a natural childbirth. I had also heard her talk many times over the years about patients developing chronic lower back pain following their epidurals… too many to be coincidental. This sounded like it was worth avoiding to me. I thought I would be open to trying it on my own, and I was going to be in the hospital, so it wasn’t like they would refuse drugs if it wasn’t going well.
One of my closest friends is a birthing doula, we had many conversations about the birthing process, the high incidence of induction, scheduled c-sections and general intervention in the natural process of bringing a baby into this world.
So, I decided I wasn’t going for the auto epidural. I was going to attempt a natural childbirth.
Then came the big question – how on earth is my baby’s head going to make it out of that opening without the help of drugs. I started my research and picked my birthing class.
I decided on Hypnobirthing. Through the hypnobirthing website I met Alisha Tamburri who became my hypnobirthing instructor. I decided that if I had a shot at doing this without drugs, this was going to be the way it would happen. Alisha’s class was invaluable and helped me realize I was with a nice doctor in the wrong practice.
With her help I found a practice with two OBGYN’s, Dr. Crane & Dr. Chin and a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) Debbie Franks – they even had receptionists who knew your name when you called their office – this is in Los Angeles.
When I met with the Debbie, there was no way I was having a midwife and there was no way my husband would go for it even if it was what I wanted. Yet, after a meeting with Debbie, I knew I wanted her to deliver our baby. With a little help from my Mother In Law – Debbie was in.
My experience with Debbie and her whole team was fantastic, not to mention night and day from what I’d experienced at my prior doctor’s team. And different from most other mom’s I’ve spoken with since.
So I went from being the first in line for an epidural, to taking hypnobirthing classes and delivering my baby with a midwife. I ended up having a natural childbirth in a hospital and I’m so happy that I gave it a try.
Below are some resources that were useful to me. I also recently watched The Business of Being Born – a documentary that I wished I had seen sooner and suggest it for all expectant mothers.
http:http://www.mymidwife.org/midwife.cfm
http://www.hypnobirthing.com
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