Birthing babies

The old saying goes, "Hindsight is always 20/20" and that's how it seems to be. When I was pregnant with Lathen I had a birth plan. When my water broke at 38 weeks, I admit I was surprised. So surprised that my "birth plan" went right out the window. Looking back with my 20/20 vision I can see so many mistakes I made. There is a list of things I would do differently if I could go back, but I can't.

Then there was Kieralee. I was torn on what to do with her. I was advised to have c-sections after Lathen because he was a bigger baby and wasn't the easiest to get out. But I really, really didn't want to have a c-section. Kevin and I prayed about it and finally felt good about our decision to go ahead and a vaginal delivery with Kieralee. Then my OB decided to give me this horrifying lecture, scare me to death and guilt me into having a c-section. He said things like, "You would feel horrible if something happened to your baby that could have been avoided with a c-section" "This baby is already bigger than your last" and so on. So I had the c-section, even though I knew I could delivery her. Sure enough she was a pound smaller, NOT bigger. Again, so many things I wish I would have done differently, but I can't.

Now that I'm pregnant again, I'm getting those feelings. I want to go VBAC (vaginal birth after a cesarean section). I want someone who will cheer me on in that desire. But I've been hesitant or nervous to push out of the norm. I'm not really sure why, my mother had all three of her babies at home. I have a cousin-in-law who is a midwife, why would that be a hard jump? I had been thinking about this, whether to go to the hospital and battle for my VBAC or to go an alternative route. Then I came across this quote on a blog that I read:

Brigham Young, President of the Church, 9 October 1872

"Would you want doctors? Yes, to set bones. We should want a good surgeon for that, or to cut off a limb. But do you want doctors? For not much of anything else, let me tell you, only the traditions of the people lead them to think so; and here is a growing evil in our midst. It will be so in a little time that not a woman in all Israel will dare to have a baby unless she can have a doctor by her. I will tell you what to do, you ladies, when you find you are going to have an increase, go off into some country where you cannot call for a doctor, and see if you can keep it. I guess you will have it, and I guess it will be all right, too. Now the cry is, “Send for a doctor.” If you have a pain in the head, “Send for a doctor;” if your heel aches, “I want a doctor;” “my back aches, and I want a doctor.” The study and practice of anatomy and surgery are very good; they are mechanical, and are frequently needed. Do you not think it is necessary to give medicine sometimes? Yes, but I would rather have a wife of mine that knows what medicine to give me when I am sick, than all the professional doctors in the world. Now let me tell you about doctoring, because I am acquainted with it, and know just exactly what constitutes a good doctor in physic. It is that man or woman who, by revelation, or we may call it intuitive inspiration, is capable of administering medicine to assist the human system when it is besieged by the enemy called Disease; but if they have not that manifestation, they had better let the sick person alone. I will tell you why: I can see the faces of this congregation, but I do not see two alike: and if I could look into your nervous systems and behold the operations of disease, from the crowns of your heads to the soles of your feet, I should behold the same difference that I see in your physiognomy—there would be no two precisely alike. Doctors make experiments, and if they find a medicine that will have the desired effect on one person, they set it down that it is good for everybody, but it is not so, for upon the second person that medicine is administered to, seemingly with the same disease, it might produce death. If you do not know this, you have not had the experience that I have. I say that unless a man or woman who administers medicine to assist the human system to overcome disease, understands, and has that intuitive knowledge, by the Spirit, that such an article is good for that individual at that very time, they had better let him alone. Let the sick do without eating, take a little of something to cleanse the stomach, bowels and blood, and wait patiently, and let Nature have time to gain the advantage over the disease. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, you may take any country in the world, I do not care where you go, and if they do not employ doctors, you will find they will beat communities that employ them, all the time. Who is the real doctor? That man who knows by the Spirit of revelation what ails an individual, and by the same Spirit knows what medicine to administer. That is the real doctor, the others are quacks. [“The Order of Enoch,” reported by David W. Evans, Journal of Discourses, vol. 15 (Liverpool: Albert Carrington, 1873), pp. 225–26.]

And that was all I needed. What I had been praying about was answered. I should go with a midwife and have this baby just as naturally as possible. Granted I'm not doing a home birth (yet) but a birthing center where it looks just like a house with a bed and a bathtub and *breathe* no pain meds. I feel confident in this decision. No pain meds doesn't scare me too much since they didn't work with Lathen anyway.

So there you have it. The plan for this babies birth and for once I feel like it is going to go as planned.

*Disclaimer: To each his own. This is what I have come to and feel good about. It is what our family has prayed about and decided to do. I have nothing but respect for my friends who are in med. school and their dear spouses that live through med. school. I also have nothing but respect for all women who birth babies, however they decide to do it.