My choice, my birthing center. . .part I

Here's Zane with his signature blanket from Rite of Passage Birthing Center, where he

made his grand debut. His birth--the 40th at the Center--was attended by Bernadette, a certified nurse-midwife, and Tammi, a birthing attendant and doula. Of course my DH and I were there, too. Later this week I'm planning to post his birth story (if that grosses you out, skip it), but I've wanted to address the "birthing center" issue for some time.

Perhaps I didn't do a lot of blogging about the birthing center before Z's birth because I wanted to make sure everything went well before I gave my final verdict on birthing centers. I should have just trusted my instincts that told me how wonderful the experience would be, but I cannot turn back time so I'll just move forward.

People seem to be rather curious about a birthing center. Here in the States, and in Texas, particularly, it is NOT the norm. Women go to OB/GYNs and have babies in the hospital with an epidural and usually have a C-section (up to 30%). More than likely, they are induced for one reason or another. This is just how things are done.

But that's not what I wanted.

Blame the yoga. Or going to college in Austin. Or too many feminist books. Or my huge problem with pride. Whatever the reason, I've always wanted a natural, drug-free birth. I didn't even know what the "benefits" were until I started reading all of the books (Sears, Bradley). Regardless, I knew even before I was pregnant that I didn't want all the IVs and epidurals (it's in your SPINE, people! That freaks me out more than pushing out a baby with no anesthesia) and constant monitoring and being on my back legs up in the air.

So I knew what I did not want. All I had to do was figure out what I DID want for a birth.

And, of course, we moved to a different country right about that time.

Fortunately, Ireland has a lot of babies. It's a good place to have a baby. Cork was well-equipped for antenatal care and labor and delivery--hey, they were even opening a new maternity hospital right in time for KidZilla's birth. But the more I learned about public and private care, hospital stays ("confinement"!!) and conditions, I felt that I was going to be extremely uptight and tense and stressed out if I tried to have a baby in the hospital. And since ALL of the birth resources say stress and anxiety are the worse things for an easy, progressing labor, I knew that was a bad combination. So we started looking at options and decided that maybe hiring a doula would help with the anxiety of it all.

I met with two doulas, ultimately, who had both had home births under a midwife's care and started to investigate the homebirth scheme in Cork and the midwife care. Once we met with the local midwife we were hooked and the planning began.

Yes, family members and friends reading this in absolute horror right now: we were planning to have the baby at home in Ireland. Whew. Now I have that off my chest. If you're dialing my number to chastise me about how irresponsible that was, you'll be ranting to a deaf ear until you read the studies and books and information about home birth that we did before we came to our decision. And then I'll ask you to walk a mile in my shoes. Once you do that, you can tell me your opinion all you want. Until then, let's just move on.

As you all know. . . we moved back from Ireland before Baby arrived, so I was starting back at square one with my prenatal care. So once again, I had to decide where and how I wanted to have this baby. . .

Through our neighbors and friends, we knew of an OB who would respect the "natural" plan wishes even in the hospital setting, and he was our backup plan after I found Rite of Passage Birthing Center literally in our backyard in Pearland. I corresponded with Bernadette, the ROP midwife briefly through e-mail, and we met with her our first weekend back in Houston.

As we toured the birthing center facility, we were impressed that it was so cozy but also completely outfitted in case of emergency. Bernadette was lovely and her experience as a labor and delivery nurse (14 years, I think) and now a midwife (2+ years) were so comforting and reassuring. She was familiar with our birthing method--Hypnobirthing (will post more later about that)--so we were ready to sign on the dotted line then and there.

So what makes a birthing center different from having a baby in the hospital?

Fundamentally, they are almost identical. Ideologically, they could not be more different.

I'm going to have to stop here to attend to my little man but will be back with more about birthing centers soon.