I'm having my baby in a birthing center because I don't want to be added to the c-section statistics unless absolutely necessary. Over 33% women in the USA have c-sections.... that's 1 in every 3 births.
Back in 1965 the c-section rate was 4.5%. There is no reason that evolution has made women unable to deliver children naturally in less than 50 years.
From all of the research I've done, medical intervention (including induction, epidurals, pain meds via IV) increase the likelihood of needing a c-section. In most hospital settings, you labor on your back which goes completely against gravity.
At my birthing center, not a single women in the past couple of years has needed a c-section. The hospital is 800 feet away from the door, and only one baby (in years) needed to be rushed over to the NICU. Everyone is required to take natural birthing classes in order to learn calming techniques during labor. You can labor however you want, whether it's in a tub or with a birthing ball.
I'm not at all what you'd call a "crunchy" type. I am having my baby in a birthing center because I don't want a c-section unless it's absolutely necessary (not "necessary" according to a doctor who does them 33% of the time). I don't want to not "labor fast enough" and then have pitocin stuck in my IV. Speaking of IVs, I don't want an IV unless I actually need fluids.
I feel everyone who ends up having a c-section considers themselves "high risk" and it happened because it "had to." A third of the population of women having babies are NOT high risk... it's just not physically possible. There are major flaws in (most) hospital births that would need to be fixed before I would ever volunteer myself for a birth at one.
ETA: The USA has a higher rate of maternal deaths than many other developed countries with much lower c-section rates. For instance, Japan has a 17% c-section rate, but only 5/1000 woman die every year during birth versus 21/1000 for women in the USA. Iceland has a 15% c-section rate, and 5/1000 maternal deaths.
Our son was born on the 11th. We had planned the birthing center, but after the water broke on wednesday and she was in labor 15 minutes after that, all day Thursday and by friday morning, still nothing, the midwife transferred us to the Hospital and suggested pitocin to move things a long
By 9 that night my wife was still a trooper, but still nothing was moving. The doctor was pushing for a c-section and she wouldn't quit. She started getting combative with my wife who'd been in labor for the better part of 3 days and under the influence of pitocin for 11 hours, what she didn't realize is how strong my wife is
You could see the open mouth gasps by everyone in the room when my wife told her thank you for her opinion, but no thanks. You could tell the Dr. was not used to being stood up to and she certainly didn't back down easily.
I'm very grateful our midwife was there thru the entire process and thankful my wife requested a 2nd opinion from another dr. he came in, said everything was fine, and it was, it just wasn't going as fast as the previous dr wanted, but we, and most importantly my wife, wanted to take the time. C-sections certainly aren't without their drawbacks and that early exposure to narcotics isn't exactly something to just shrug off. If it's necessary, it's necessary. When it's not, it's not.
I thought it was great there was a resident doc there as well and he saw the whole thing and how birthing by their little timetable isn't always the way it has to be. I hope that experience sticks with him when he is leading up the deliveries some day.
anyway, 5:58 on Saturday morning Eli was born, happy, healthy, and awesome
Take home message. Having the plan is great, but you must remain strong. If we hadn't had our midwife there, I'm not sure how things would have gone. Probably ended up in a c-section and we're not easily convinced of anything and fairly well educated in our decisions. But not ever having gone thru it and I can't explain how vulnerable you feel at that moment, it's something you just have to experience, I"m not sure we would have had the conviction or confidence to tell the doctor "No" if our midwife wasn't there with us.
But as it turned out, we stuck to our plan the best we could, and thankfully we had 30 years of delivering babies naturally to listen to because we were both a little out of our element
as for other things in this thread, i never thought I'd be particularly fond of newborns. I love kids, have always loved kids. Most seem to like me back and I always get them in trouble from their parents because we get a little rowdy. But newborns? thought it was something to get thru.
I can't even describe how incredible it feels to hold our baby. I really can't.
We'll see what the rest brings. We have our ideas and plans and like everything else, we remain flexible when it makes sense to be so.
As for my childhood. I have one brother and a shitload of cousins
our extended family is closer than a lot of brother/sister relationships. I've hated them all and loved them at the same time. Never would I want those experiences to be different. Sharing a bedroom with a brother till I graduated high school sucked. Having a brother to do stuff with all those years was awesome. Having someone that knows you that well as an adult and where you came from is invaluable today.