I’m a Type A. There’s no denying it. I love to plan out my color-coded calendar months in advance and our vacations down to the smallest details. I’ve researched my daughter’s extracurricular activities years before she was old enough to join just so I’d have an idea of when things occur (Daisy Girl Scouts begins at age 5 by the way). So when we became pregnant this time around, the plan was to have a home birth after a successful birthing center experience with our first.

I’ve done my home birthing research and found out that a carefully planned home birth has a lower incidence of maternal morbidity, including postpartum hemorrhage and perineal lacerations. Episiotomy, cesarean birth, and instrumental vaginal birth are also lower.  

But, of course, home birth also has some risks, such as infant seizures and a higher infant mortality rate. Hence, deciding to have a home birth is a major decision that entails intelligent planning. So, the first thing we did after contemplating this decision was to seek professional help.

I consulted my OB-Gyne and told her about our plan right from the first trimester of my pregnancy. It’s a good thing I heard really encouraging advice, and my doctor was very supportive, providing me with the right information I needed to prepare for this big decision. I knew then that home birth wouldn’t be easy for us, but I was willing to beat all the hurdles.

I rocked that Home Birth preparation. By the end of the first trimester, I had my many checklists. Checklists of things I had, the things I needed to get, and the long list of honey-do’s for my hubby. I bought special, wipe-able canvas bins to hold all the labor and postpartum supplies. We prepared our daughter for the birth of her baby brother with the help of YouTube videos and her Doc McStuffins stethoscope.

I also took the Calm Birth Online Hypnobirthing Course and learned much from it. This course taught my husband and me to remain calm for a joyful home birth. Taking this online course was all worth it because I was able to use the techniques and concepts which helped me throughout my pregnancy and labor. Hence, I must say, I had a fantastic journey because we were well-prepared.

We planned months ahead that I’d give birth in our master bathroom and then settle in our bed as a family of four. I bought battery-powered flicker candles, a waterproof mini-speaker to blast spa-like music from Pandora, we had a good camera set-up and I made sure the master suite was clutter-free.

I had planned who would be on my birth team, in the room/house, and how our daughter could participate in the process.

But I quickly learned plans don’t always go accordingly…

That girl Elsa knows something. I had to just let it go. The planner in me had no idea:

  • labor would take about the same length of time as my first. I thought it was supposed to be shorter with the second one?!
  • I apparently still had lots of unsettled emotions from losing a pregnancy at 12 weeks prior to this one. I thought I had dealt with it. Apparently not. I wept and sobbed during labor as I mourned that lost pregnancy.
  • I would actually go backwards from 9 cm to 6 cm because my tub wouldn’t allow him to stay in position. Who goes backwards?!
  • that after all the preparation and a successful water birth with my daughter, I would not have a water birth this time. Instead he needed me to be in the bed so he could get into a good position to come down.
  • because labor took so long, my toddler fell asleep and couldn’t be there for the birth. (She did however, wake up at 3 a.m. for some reason and came in to meet her baby brother!)
  • I would be so exhausted I had no energy to take some good photos of me with my son until the next day.

In the end though, this was his birth story and I am thankful for a healthy baby boy. And as for me, this Type A is quickly learning that with 2 young children, plans are more like guidelines.

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here