I’m not gonna launch into a diatribe on why you should be all hippie granola like me and have your babies at home. I’m not gonna judge you if you had all your babies in a hospital or a birthing center or a science lab. {I don’t know where the science lab came from – just go with it.} I’ll still be your bff however you have your babies.
But I am gonna tell you how amazing and wonderful and beautiful my home birth experience was.
First of all, here are some reasons we are infinitely glad we decided on and then had a home birth. {This is after we reached the conclusion that we didn’t want a hospital birth. After TONS of research. And book-reading. And countless hours scouring the internet slash getting distracted by design blogs and Pinterest. But I really did do my research. If you are new to this whole idea or want to learn more, I would start with The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer and Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin. And then maybe Birthing From Within by Pam England. Although that last one is even hippier than me :) Oh, and you should watch The Business of Being Born. So in this post I’m not going to go into c-section rates or hospital policies or OB/GYNs or statistics. Just our awesome home birth experience, mkay?}
So back to my point. At home, I had freedom to move however or whenever the heck I wanted. At any point in my labor. No rules, no regulations. So this means I could work WITH my contractions and try lots of things to make myself more comfortable. No being constrained to the bed. I walked around, I went up and down my stairs, I laid on my floor with pillows. I could have stood on my head if I wanted to. Or ran laps around my yard. You get the point. All this freedom of movement means my contractions could be more productive. I felt like my body knew exactly what it was doing – I just needed to get in the best position so it could do it’s job in the most effective way.
At home, I ate and drank whatever I wanted. My midwife wanted me to be consuming some calories at least once an hour during labor. Because, let’s be honest – labor is the most intense hard-core workout of your life. Makes p90X look like a romp on the playground. You wouldn’t dream of working out for hours at a time with no calories and no hydration. {And most hospitals have major rules about no eating or drinking during labor.} I drank lots of water and ate small snacks of yogurt and fruit before I had ZERO appetite as labor got more intense and then I switched to white grape juice and Gatorade. Oh, and after labor, I had requested beforehand homemade buttermilk pancakes with lots of butter and syrup which my dad made in our kitchen and brought up to me right after Baby Sister was born. And which I ate in my super comfy, very own bed. Amen and amen.
At home, well…I was in MY HOME. Call me Captain Obvious. But really. I was surrounded by all my stuff, my space, my bathroom, my pillows, my candles, my music. Home, especially to me, is the epitome of comfort. And because I was so comfortable, I was infinitely more relaxed. More relaxed means I’m not letting my mind get in the way of what my body needs to do. I didn’t have to worry about random strangers coming in while I was laboring or being in a super-medical environment with beeping and bright lights and linoleum. It was just so comforting to be in my own space.
Other reflections and more reasons it was so amazing…
My wonderful husband prayed through every contraction for me. Literally. When the contractions started becoming more intense, I became a little scared of them. I hated that feeling. So I asked Hubby {who was holding my hand the entire time} to be praying for me through each contraction. There are no words to describe the difference it made. The pain and intensity was still there, but the fear was gone. And in its place was this underlying peace – this sense of okay-ness.
Looking back, I love how God arranged for me not to know I was in labor for the entire morning! Technically, my contractions started about 7:00 that Tuesday morning. But since I thought they were gas pains, I really enjoyed my morning. I kind of wrote the morning off since I was having those random pains and I was able to read a book next to Little Bit on the couch while she watched Sesame Street. And I let myself take a long hot bath while Little Bit played in our bathroom. I shaved my legs and washed my hair and then actually fixed my hair, too. There were zero anxious thoughts about labor or dread of what was coming because I was completely oblivious to the fact that I was in labor. Ignorance really is bliss.
God had shown me Isaiah 41:10 a couple of weeks before my due date. This is what Isaiah 41:10 says in The Message: Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you. I had been really worried about the whole panicking thing. And then He told me, literally, not to panic. He is so sweet to me. And the part about holding me steady and keeping a firm grip on me – wow. As always, He knew exactly what I needed to hear.
So those are my thoughts about the whole thing. Can’t say enough good things about it. Obviously, since this is a really loooong post. But hey, what’s a blog for, if not to get your thoughts out there, right?
And you should really think about becoming a hippie like me and having your baby at home. Just sayin’. :)
