Thoughts on Birthing

I am 38 weeks pregnant now (and a few days--don't take any away from me!) so we decided to make our way to Antigua. Nahuala is great but does not have a water birthing center like Antigua does. I birthed Lucy in a birthing tub at St Peter's in Albany, but when it was time to birth Levi, the tub was broken and I wasn't aware of any home birthing options and didn't know how to pay for it, etc. In any case, I decided to try a "land birth" and the short story is that I didn't like it. It wasn't the "land birthing" that was the bad part (although I much prefer being able to move totally freely in the water and the soothing effect of the warm water), it was that I had a grumpy doctor that made my experience less than enjoyable.

You guys know me. I did not want any intervention unless totally necessary and wanted to be involved in the process of birthing my child (which I think we all deserve, it is OUR child we're birthing afterall). But the Dr. decided he wanted to break my water and just started to go right on in without asking! "Wait", I said, rather politely to someone who was just going on into my privates without permission, "we'd like to be involved in this decision". When we said we thought it was fine to proceed with breaking my water (since Levi was about 18 hrs into labor and not budging), the Dr. got angry that we had questioned him and said, "you know what? We're not going to do it now." And walked out of the room. I was furious. I think you can understand.

In the end, Levi was born a few hours later and it was marvelous to meet him and love him and no grumpy Dr. can ever take that away from me. But our birthing experiences are so important and long lasting in our memories that I want a beautiful one this time where we are the main ones determining the direction of the birthing not a grumpy Dr.
So I now have a midwife, Hannah, who is wonderful and who I trust is going to help me have the natural, self-directed experience I'm hoping for. Here's a picture of a couple who birthed in the water at her center.