Any positive stories?
I'm planning a waterbirth in a hospital with LO2 and I'm really nervous about it. I've heard a lot of horror stories (about hospitals in general, not this one in particular) about hospital staff not respecting the wishes of women coming in planning a natural birth, telling them they have to sign epidural papers "just in case", be hooked up to an IV, offering unwanted pain meds, exaggerating situations to "warrant" the augmentation of labor, etc. I'm really worried that this is going to happen when I go into labor. I plan on laboring at home as long as possible before I go in, and DH and I would fight them tooth and nail to get what we planned for as long as intervention isn't necessary (I would never say that though; I don't want them to come up with a reason why intervention is necessary), but I don't want to have to fight them. That's not the calm, relaxing, stress-free environment I want for labor and I don't want the stress to lead to a problem.
I would really love to do an out-of-hospital birth again, but I had complications after DS1 was born and ended up going to the hospital. Almost no one in our families was on board with the out-of-hospital birth from the beginning anyway, now there's no way I could go anywhere but a hospital and not hear about it from everyone every chance they got (plus DH isn't comfortable with it after the complications either). So, does anyone have any positive natural hospital births to share? I'd love to feel a little better and a little less apprehensive about the whole thing during these remaining 11 weeks. Thanks!
Re: Any positive stories?
I had a fabulous natural birth in a hospital, but how things work where I am, is that you have your own midwife, who attends your birth and that's it.
When in labour, I only dealt with my midwife (she met us at the hospital when I was ready to head up there), and an OB who midwife had come in as LO was almost crowning because she was worried LO was stuck and wanted an opinion on whether an episiotomy was necessary. The OB took one look, said, "no two good pushes and she can do it." then she hung around to cheer me on and see LO born.
Beyond that one administrator came to the door to give my midwife some paperwork and my ID wristband.
So I'd say it's largely down to the protocol of the hospital you will birth in, and whether or not you have faith in your midwife/Ob to support your plans.
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
I had a great hospital birth. My hospital is pretty NB-friendly, and I had a CNM who understood that I was using Hypnobabies and knew the things that were most important to me. I arrived at the hospital, filled out admission paperwork in between contractions, (the nurse asked about the epi, I told her I'd ask for one if I wanted once, she asked if I wanted to go ahead and sign the permission form, I declined, and that was that).
I changed into a gown while my husband went back to the car to get our stuff and got into the bed to have the fetal heart monitor put on my belly. My nurse told me they only needed a 20-minute strip and then I could get up and do whatever I wanted. I asked her if I could continue pulling my belly up to relieve pressure during contractions, and she told me to do whatever I needed to do and she'd work around it.
My CNM came in to check me, found out I was 9 cm. A tech came in the room to do my admissions blood work, and that was the worst part of my experience because she hadn't brought the correct supplies, and as she was fumbling around with tubes or whatever on her cart, I had the urge to push. She asked me to straighten my arm out while I was in the middle of a contraction and rather than telling her to wait, I just went ahead and did it so we could move on.
I started pushing, my MW broke my water, everyone helped me to my side to push, and I had my baby. Without my even asking, the lights had been dimmed and everyone was calm and quiet.
So anyway, you can absolutely have a great natural birth in a hospital. I would recommend doing a hospital tour/talking with the nurses and discussing your wishes with your care provider so that everyone knows everyone else's expectations.
A lot of natural birth literature really demonizes hospitals. Some may be difficult to work with, but some are amazing! I had my baby with a midwife at a very natural birth friendly hospital. I trusted the people who were assisting me and I had a great birth. They asked my permission before doing anything and they told me I could decline anything I wanted. I did decline some things and they didn't say another word about it. I didn't have to have an IV or a hep lock (neither are standard at my hospital anyway) and I could move around as I pleased. They did intermittent monitoring but I never had to move for them to do it. If I was on the birthing ball, they did it there. If I was squatting on the bed, they did it there, and it was always just a couple minutes.
As far as avoiding intervention goes, I think the most important thing is to have a provider that you trust. If you have someone who you know will not suggest intervention unless its necessary you won't feel the need to fight them if they do suggest something because you will know its important for your baby. I think there is also a difference between a suggestion and a recommendation. For example, when my baby measured greater than the 95th percentile for size at my 37 week ultrasound we discussed induction or c-section due to size. My midwife did not recommend either of those things in my particular case, but we did discus them. I never minded my providers telling me I had options and choices, and they didn't mind when I said no.
A good provider will help you understand why an intervention is necessary (if that is the case) and the pro's and con's of doing or not doing the intervention. They will help you make the right choice, not just tell you what to do.
I had a great water birth and a natural pregnancy. I did a lot of walking and some induction accupuncture starting at week 37. I ate right and drank lots of water. Did perineal massage and drank red rasberry leaf tea, and took a few herbs carefully prescribed by my midwife. My water broke at 7pm on a thursday night and by 12 noon on Friday I pushed my little girl out into this world! No meds and in the tub! Transition was hard but quick, I focused on my body and listened to what it told me to do... sqauting or rotating my hips. I pushed for about 1.5 hours, crowning was quick and out she came!
I highly reccommend to have the baby lightly suctioned, mine burped up amniotic fluid and water for 36 hours and had a hard time with breastfeeding and never really established it...i had to pump and feed for up until now ( 5 months). They dont inhale anything but they certainly can swallow considering they are a bit hungry when they pop out!
Good luck, I have no regrets and you Can do this!
Hopefully she doesn't mind me posting this here, but I just love this recent birth story from a fellow bumpie:
https://www.freshgranolafamily.com/2012/01/dylans-mostly-painless-delivery.html
She had a tub in the hospital too, which I think is so cool. Wish my hospital allowed that. Honestly, if you're somewhere that is cool with water birth you've got a leg up on a lot of people as far as the staff being natural birth friendly.
I had my LO in a hospital. The second line of my birth plan was "A birth with as few medical interventions as possible." That is what I got. My OB was on board with me and the nursing staff was like having a dedicated crew of cheerleaders. I had a doula with me as well as my DH of course. It was great. They watched me pretty closely. I was GBS+ so I had to have an IV but once that was in and done, nothing to worry about.
I see that you are in PDX, surely L&D nurses there see plenty of folks who want a natural childbirth experience. Being in SEA, most of the birth plan stuff was already standard policy for most hospitals in town.
Thanks guys, these stories really helped. I'm so glad to hear positive natural birth stories. I'm thinking of getting that hypnobirthing CD now, it sounds amazing.
Cyclek8bride - Yeah, PDX is pretty on board with a lot of natural stuff and the whole green movement, but I hadn't heard of anyone I knew birthing out-of-hospital, or naturally for that matter, not until I was researching ways to birth with my first LO. There are a few birthing centers here and many midwives, but we only have one hospital in the area that does water birth. There is at least one hospital fighting with the birthing centers and out-of-hospital midwives, trying to get them shut down; staff at this hospital will also treat emergency transports as fools for having tried birth out-of-hospital in the first place. After my emergency transport to the water birth hospital, my mom told me that a nurse she talked to said that they're only civil with the midwives so that the moms who need an emergency transport feel like they have somewhere to go. So that didn't give me too much hope, even though they offer water birth, that they really understood and wouldn't intervene. But my midwife is pretty positive that there won't be pressure to do anything I don't want to do, and I feel much better having finally heard some positive NB hospital stories. Thank you guys so much.