Honey, could you rub my back while I have this baby?

I don't know if you know this, but I've wanted a natural home birth from the beginning. But my husband is a great lover of doctors, medicine, and pain relief, and he also worries, so we compromised by planning to do a hospital birth as naturally as the hospital would let me. 

No more, my friends. No more. 

I came across a great documentary while channel surfing called "The Business of Being Born." It seems Ricki Lake was unhappy with her first (lack of a) birth experience, and opted for a home birth the second time. She also really developed a passion for promoting midwifery and natural birth.

So Ryan and I watched it together, and he was sold in 30 minutes. There were two statistics that did it, and I'm quoting these without have researched them myself, FYI. 1. The US has the highest infant mortality rate of any developed country. 2. The other developed countries use midwives and have home births significantly more than us (don't remember exact numbers).

We also got to see several home births (which was good, since neither of us have ever seen a birth before. Ryan feels he's less likely to pass out now), and after watching the home births versus the c-sections and hospital births, Ryan said, "Why would you do it any other way?" Which is why I love him. 

Now, as a documentary, the movie is pretty unabashedly slanted in it's pro homebirth stance. There are a few doctors who say things like "How would you deal with a hemorrhage at home?" But the statistics the midwives give, especially Ina May (the author of the natural birth book I'm still waiting on), are what I really appreciated. The history of hospital births was also very interesting. 

I also learned some about the drugs used in hospital births, and how Pitocin, used to speed up contractions, and the Epidural, used to numb pain (which slows down contractions), work counteractively and can put the baby in distress leading to a C-section that would not have been necessary without the drugs in the first place. And the doctors talked about how if you give a woman a C-Section you can't get sued, because you did everything you could do. 

Interestingly, while the movie is very home birth, they also make the case for the C-Section's place in all this, as one of the filmmakers has to have an emergency one when her premature baby starts coming breach and with the cord around his neck. 

So, we have a new plan. I am hunting down midwives (preferably a nurse midwife). We're going to continue our prenatal care with our doc (who we love), to make sure we have a low risk pregnancy. Presuming our doc is on board for this, we're going to shoot for a home birth, with our doctor as back up in case a trip to the hospital is need.  I suspect she'll be fine with it. Our motto for planning this birth has been "plan what we want, with the understanding that the situation may change."

I'm really excited, and so happy that Ryan gets it. I'm more comfortable with the idea of being at home and relaxed. I'm more comfortable with family being at the house then I was with them being in the delivery room (is that weird?). I'm WAY more comfortable knowing that my body will have the chance to be a hero and do something amazing. I'm practically giddy that we made this decision. I love that Ryan will be able to be really involved now, too. And he seems to be excited about being able to be more actively supportive.