Jason sure had me fooled. The baby is a girl, and we named her Camille. We had a beautiful home birth, and I loved, loved, loved it. It was fast (a little too fast at just over 2 hours), and easy.
I had a little 24 hour flu bug when I gave birth (though I didn't realize it until hours later). I was chilling while in labor. So while most women might be stripping, I ran to the closet and grabbed a sweater, and had Jason warm up the rice pad for me.
The kids were speechless when the woke up in the morning, and there was a new baby in the house.
Camille is a name I've loved forever. Very popular when I was growing up, but I don't think she'll run into too many her age.
The kids love having a new sister. The transition has been much easier than I anticipated, though I had my mom here and my MIL here for a while, so I've only been on my own about a day :) I'm sure our first trip with me and 3 kids to the grocery store will be exciting.
And as far as home birth goes, all I can say is, I'm not crazy. And I'm not a risk-taker (in fact, Dana is still rear-facing in her carseat!). I stopped telling people I was home birthing because I got tired of people being scared for me. It doesn't surprise me. I know exactly what they are thinking, because it is exactly what I thought until I actually read something about it. It seems really unsafe. I'm not trying to convince everyone to home birth. But I do think if women took the time to read about it, and know their birth options, many more women would choose to do it. It started with me contemplating a natural birth. I felt a little sad I had birthed 2 babies and didn't know what childbirth was like. I felt like I was missing out on a huge part of being a woman, of what women have been experiencing for thousands of years, of a huge part of mortality. And I wondered if it would help the baby to not be refluxy (I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this later). So I started reading just about natural childbirth. First, I discovered my OB was wrong: There are advantages to a natural birth. Big advantages. Health advantages. Risk advantages.
Then I discovered there are advantages to home birth.
And then I discovered it is just as safe to home birth if:
1. You are low risk
2. You are within 30 min. of a hospital
3. You have a qualified birth attendant.
Whoah! I know what you're thinking: "How could that be? What about if something happens? What about my sister/friend/coworker who...? What about how they had to administer ____ to me?" I'd love to answer these questions, but I'm tired. If you're curious, look it up. I spent probably 60 hours researching the topic before I felt comfortable going ahead with it. I read the pro-side of home birth, and the con-side of home birth, because one thing I've really learned is in health, there are 2 sides to every story, and everyone has a different opinion. I found this book extremely enlightening. And this movie is a good surface summary of the obstetrics vs midwifery models of birth, though I'll warn you, you see nipples and it says the F word. I loved watching the natural births in it, though.
So here's to every woman having the safest best birth for them. I love childbirth. It really is amazing. I really feel so much luckier than men.
