New here! How do you choose...

Avery1016

Hi girls, new here. Still TTC, but I've known I plan a 100% natural birth since I was teenager. Now that the time is (hopefully) getting closer, I wanted to talk to people who have experienced the process. My family isn't supportive of the idea at all. They think I'm nuts for not wanting everything drug out there. 

 So I guess my biggest stumbling block is how to find a great midwife. I have very specific ideas for how I'd love for my birth to be able to go if everything were perfect. Considering a home birth. But since I have my fantasy birth so planned out in my head, I know I'm going to be very picky finding midwife that thinks the same way I do. I feel weird just googling midwives, like there is just way too many to know who's really any good or where to start.

 

Any advice is amazing!

 Thanks!

 Any advice  

RockyMtnMama

I first asked around to any friends who had already had kids, then you can go in and meet with each practice and decide if that works for you.  We also had a very natural-friendly hospital in the area I used to live (discounts natural birth birthing classes and sends every baby home in a cloth diaper) - and they can give you names/numbers of care providers. 

Plus, look for free-standing birth centers in your area (not affliated with a hospital).  Those are usually very supportive of all natural birth process and don't have the option for pain meds even. 

Really you can start anywhere and then don't feel bad about moving after the fact.  I had a midwife/hospital birth with my first and it went well and the midwives were fine, but I really liked the midwives with my second delivery at a free-standing birth center and now I'm looking at home birth for my last. 

Don't be afraid of homebirth either - your state should have a direct-entry midwife database that you can look to for looking for homebirth midwives. 

 

 

 

beccaboo605

I had a very hard 3 day home-birth and I only slept for about 3-4 hours, but I LOVED IT. My water didn't break until the last day when my labor really got going. And I had problems with my cervix getting caught on the soft spot of my baby's head, but my midwife was so amazing and helped me through it  putting my into different positions and such. I'm not going to say it was easy, but the was the best choise I mad with having the homebirth (for me. Homebirths aren't for everyone..) and going completely natural. If I was in a hospital, they wouldn't have waited for me for so long (at least not at any of the hospitals in our area...I did a lot of research) and would have given me a C-section which was the last thing on earth I wanted. When my daughter arrived, she was wide eyed, focused, and drug-free. Afterwards, I got up and took a shower and it felt amazing.

I strongly recommend getting your body ready for it by exercising a lot and taking a birth class. I'm so glad I did. And I will definitely be having another home-birth next time.