Monday, September 28, 2009

Can I handle the pain?

Since I have several friends who are pregnant or have recently had a baby, they too are blogging and asking questions to the on-line community. It is interesting to read the responses that they get. There are actually a couple of other pregos out there that want to do the natural thing. I'm surprised that there is actually not that much support out there for going natural. Many people have expressed the need to let the doctors takes over and just trust your doctor. Some people have the idea that there is pain medication for a reason and you should take it.
I'm beginning to wonder if I am missing something. Haven't women been doing this for hundreds of years without pain medication? If the pain was too much to handle I don't think the human race would still be here. Surely my body can handle the pain. How long can it last? Five days at most? The pain won't be forever. But I think the whole idea of giving all of my trust over to my doctor is the most disturbing idea. I trust my doctor but questions need to be asked at each step and with each intervention. Besides, my doctor is limited by the hospital. The hospital sets rules and the doctor has to follow them. Martha is not obligated to follow anything the hospital wants so Martha better be paying attention and asking questions.
I'm scared of the hospital. People go in healthy and come out dead. All I want to do is have a healthy baby so the hospital seems like a super scary place. I'm due in the dead of winter and the height of flu season. There will be lots of sick people all over the hospital. I guess I just don't want to leave with something besides my baby, you know like the flu.
So anyways, we are meeting with a midwife on Thursday. This one is local! I'm excited. I like the first midwife we interviewed but she is two hours away. Again being due at the end of December, I'm thinking weather might be a factor. We'll see who we like best and move forward from there. The doula search is not moving forward very quickly but I'm hoping the local midwife might have some names for me. So much to do and think about.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Homebirth hiccup

Well in talking about planning a homebirth, I have hit a bit of a snag. It has to do with my backup hospital. The hospital is like a 5 min walk from our house. So it's not a worry about making it to the hospital on time but I am worried about the level of care I would receive. That was the reason we chose to go to North Carolina for our Ob/Gyn, to avoid DRMC.
This weekend there was a huge write up in the newspaper about how horrible DRMC really is. People discussed 8-hour waits in the ER. If something were to go wrong, DRMC is the hospital we would run too. I don't know that I would have time to wait. There is part of me that is very worried that DRMC would be the reason that either I or the baby didn't make it. Long before I got pregnant, people warned me about labor and delivery at DRMC. We were told to go elsewhere if we had a choice. Now with the idea of a homebirth, I wonder if we would be better off just planning a hospital birth. To hire a doula to help me labor at home as much as possible and then just run to Eden to have the baby.
I am not against hospital births. I know doctors save lives but they cause c-sections and try to force drugs to make it easy on themselves. Right now as it stands, I'm doing well. My baby and I are good candidates for a nice normal birth so why take time away from women who need to have a c-section or need medical intervention? I believe my body can do this and I believe that I can birth my child without drugs, without an IV, eating a cheeseburger, while watching Love Actually.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

freebirthing?

This morning I watched an hour-long special on FreeBirthing. I know that people think my decision to have my baby at home is crazy but at least I'm going to have help. Freebirthers go it completely alone or at least without any trained professionals at all! Am I crazy or does that sound crazy to anyone else? I believe that my body can give birth to Baby Bud just fine. I believe that I can do that at home safely but I still want someone who has been professionally trained to be around. I've never had a baby before and even if I had, I don't know nothing about birthin' no babies!
Some of the women in the special also didn't have any professional prenatal care. That is also crazy to me. I mean I don't want to sound like a judgmental ass about the whole thing but that just doesn't sound safe to me. It just sounds crazy. All of the woman in the special had had a bad hospital birth so they were going to the extreme of freebirthing. Why not have a midwife there? Why not get prenatal care? I know those women were doing what they felt was right for them and their babies. But I don't think I would be supportive of such a decision. I would hope that someone would sit me down and try to talk me out of freebirthing.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Week 25 - The Check-up

Had a check-up with the doctor today. It went well. My weight is under control. I've only gained 3lbs! The doctor said that Baby Bud should weight about two pounds so most of my weight gain is actually Bud. My blood pressure is also very good. I did have my glucose test done today but will have to wait until tomorrow to get the results. Once I got home I did have a message from the doctor's office letting me know that my iron was a little low so they are starting me on an iron pill. All in all, a good check-up.
Baby Bud is super active these days. Bud is kicking like crazy! I've heard that all that kicking means that I will end up pooping my pants. Something about one well timed kick to the butt and I'll be unable to control it. I've been warned to keep a change of clothes at the office. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to pooping my pants.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Home Birth

Our dream of having a home birth are closer to coming true. We are talking to a midwife that we like and feel that we can trust. She is a Hollins girl! She has extensive training and has been to over 100 births. We are still in the talking phase since we have to figure out the cost and how to pay the midwife. If we have a hospital birth the the insurance will cover most of it but they cover nothing if we go with a home birth. I'm pretty sure that a home birth is cheaper than an a hospital birth but they cover one and not the other.
We are finding that we are having problems with the family. Ray's side is not very supportive about it. I haven't talked to my mom yet but I'm sure she won't be against since so many of the woman in my family have had home births. We'll see. I can't believe that his family is so against it. I think the shocking part was that they think that we haven't researched and really thought about this decision. Anyone that knows Ray and I knows that we don't do anything without research and really thinking about it. I'm not anti-hospital but why risk the flu and unnecessary interventions? So far, I'm in good health, Bud is doing well so we are good candidates for home birth. If Bud is breech or some other complication comes up then we'll head to the hospital. I'm not trying to risk my baby or my health which is why having the baby in my own home is such a great option! Nothing is set in stone yet and hopefully we'll work it all out.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The blog about . . .

Well I feel like I've gotten into a pregnancy groove. I'm not as tired now that work as settled down. I am getting achy but too badly. The baby is moving like crazy! Baby Bud likes to kick my hips. I remember when I use to wonder what a baby moving would feel like and now my wonder has been satisfied in abundance! All in all, pregnancy at this stage is good.
I have one weekend of classes left! Once I turn in my portfolio on Saturday I'll be done with the second masters! I can't wait.
Tomorrow, Ray and I will be headed to a midwife and discuss having a homebirth. We're not sure what we will do but meeting with the midwife is the first step in opening up some options.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Baby Bud get political

I try to keep this blog about Bud and my progress thru this pregnancy but today I have to talk about politics, specifically health care. Why health care? Well first it is in the news but also I'm pregnant and now that I need my health insurance more than ever it's time to think about it.

A few weeks back, I got a statement of benefits from my insurance company stating that since I had not met my deductible yet, they would be not be covering any pre-natal care until I met the $5000 deductible! Folks, for a split-second I totally freaked out. It honestly crossed my mind that I could not keep this baby. Where would I come up with $5000 dollars plus the money for the birth! I was really lucky. When Ray got his new job he added me to his insurance so I'm covered by his. With his health insurance I'm only paying $15 for all of my prenatal care!

So what's the difference? Well he works for a major corporation and I work for a small school district which means I pay way more for crappier health insurance! So because I have chosen to work with kids instead of making the big buck in the private sector, I get punished. It's not fair!

Baby Bud deserves prenatal care. Every baby and pregnant woman in this country deserves prenatal care. But more than that every person deserves health care. I work my ass off everyday and my health insurance doesn't cover anything! What if I didn't work and had no health insurance? I know that without Ray's health insurance I would be in a major financial hole right now. I know that there are working people in this country that are one major disease away from being homeless. It's not about Democrat or Republican, its about working Americans getting fair coverage.

I keep hearing people saying that they don't want the government to run their health insurance. They should get to choose their doctors. I guess these people have great insurance to begin with. With my old health insurance (I've dropped my work coverage for Ray's), they choose my doctor. I could go to people in-network or pay the super high price. Sure I have a choice, between Dr. A or Dr. B but what about the wonderful doctors in North Carolina. Nope those were off limits, they are out of network. Some people are saying that they don't want the government to pick what procedures they can have. Well my doctor ordered a CAT scan but the health insurance would only pay for an MRI. So who picked my procedure? In the end, I choose to do neither because I would have to meet my $5000 deductible before they would cover anything.

I know the health care debate is so much bigger than me and Baby Bud. All I can do is share my ups and downs with health insurance. I don't have a solution but I know that sitting on our hands is not going to help. I hope there are some people out there with good solutions because there are too many people dying from preventable diseases for "freedom" of health care choice.