6 days ago I had my 3rd baby.
She’s perfect and gorgeous and we are all adjusting pretty well! I never in a million years thought that I would be the kind of girl to want a completely natural birth but TA-DA! I am.
All three of my children were born at home- on purpose. I took a natural childbirth class when I got pregnant with my first. I’m one of those types of people that has to know everything about something that frightens me, and childbirth frightened me. So I bought every book, took a class, and practiced breathing and positions and all kinds of stuff to prepare for Lucy’s birth (my first).
In the beginning I planned on having her naturally in the hospital, but as I went through the class I realized that to have a natural childbirth in the hospital would be a fight. I didn’t want my husband to constantly be fending off nurses and doctors from offering me drugs or interrupting my concentration.
I decided to go to a birthing center. At the time we lived in Brooklyn NY so we had a couple of choices but after researching their transfer rates (mothers who start at the center and end at the hospital) I still did not feel completely satisfied. Until I met with the doula that I was thinking of hiring and she said ‘your 5 minutes away from literally 4 different hospitals, why don’t you just have her at home?’ That made sense to me. If there was an emergency for some reason (which was highly unlikely) I would call the hospital to let them know we were coming and wait in the car as long as I would have to wait in the hospital to be wheeled up to surgery or whatever. So, I decided to stay home.
Our family was REALLY nervous about this. We did a lot of research to ease our minds about the possibility of complications and the results were- in low risk pregnancies the chances that something would go wrong were very low. Since I was not interested in pain meds there was really no reason for me to need a hospital- there was nothing wrong.
Three births later I feel the same way. My children were birthed in the comfort of my home and my recovery was spent in my home with my family.
Birth is truly an astounding phenomenon. As women our bodies should be celebrated. The things that happen to our bodies during birth are nothing short of a miracle- none the less the pregnancy itself.
Fearfully and wonderfully made indeed!
Oh, Erica, I’m so happy for you and your lovely family! Congratulations on your baby’s birth. What a blessing.
Congratulations!!!
Beautiful! I helped a dear friend home-deliver her 6th child. I will never forget how truly beautiful it was. Life is a continuous miracle!