If there is one thing that has struck me hardest over the last nine months, it's the number of decisions to be made for someone else. This very tiny someone who will one day be an adult-sized someone, who will be affected in one way or another by all these early decisions.
Ultrasounds, quad screens, vitamin K, GBS, erythromycin, infant heel sticks, circumcision, pediatricians, back-up hospitals, birth plans, doulas, midwives, caffeine, and cat poop.
This tiny someone is currently inside my own body, and so most of these decisions are made together, the two of us, plus a second opinion from Dad. This system has worked fairly well, with only a few hand-wringings, but it has not been easy.
Nor have we taken any of the decisions lightly.
One choice we made early on, I realize I haven't been very vocal about, which isn't a problem, as much as a surprise: I'm still answering the "which hospital" question at nine months.
Folks, we're planning a home birth. There. I said it. On the Internets. For everyone to read.
This was a decision we made, the three of us, together, as a family. A home birth with midwives is what is best for us, and I feel absolutely blessed that home birth is an option for our family.
I cannot speak highly enough of our experience thus far, and my hope is that all families consider a birth plan off the beaten-to-death path of the hospital birth. In fact, I have come to see that if all medical care were similar to the midwife-model, our country, our people, our nation would be in an entirely different space. No shit.
And while I always knew that I wanted a plan that didn't involve hospitals from the onset of labor, I didn't know what I wanted, exactly. It took some time, I learned a lot about the grayscale of birth options, and we interviewed several midwives before we reached our choice.
And so the conclusion I've come to over the last nine months, and my unsolicited advice to all people, pregnant or not, is this: explore your options, then make the best choice for you, your family.
We can take back the state of health care, one decision at a time.
Ultrasounds, quad screens, vitamin K, GBS, erythromycin, infant heel sticks, circumcision, pediatricians, back-up hospitals, birth plans, doulas, midwives, caffeine, and cat poop.
This tiny someone is currently inside my own body, and so most of these decisions are made together, the two of us, plus a second opinion from Dad. This system has worked fairly well, with only a few hand-wringings, but it has not been easy.
Nor have we taken any of the decisions lightly.
One choice we made early on, I realize I haven't been very vocal about, which isn't a problem, as much as a surprise: I'm still answering the "which hospital" question at nine months.
Folks, we're planning a home birth. There. I said it. On the Internets. For everyone to read.
This was a decision we made, the three of us, together, as a family. A home birth with midwives is what is best for us, and I feel absolutely blessed that home birth is an option for our family.
I cannot speak highly enough of our experience thus far, and my hope is that all families consider a birth plan off the beaten-to-death path of the hospital birth. In fact, I have come to see that if all medical care were similar to the midwife-model, our country, our people, our nation would be in an entirely different space. No shit.
And while I always knew that I wanted a plan that didn't involve hospitals from the onset of labor, I didn't know what I wanted, exactly. It took some time, I learned a lot about the grayscale of birth options, and we interviewed several midwives before we reached our choice.
And so the conclusion I've come to over the last nine months, and my unsolicited advice to all people, pregnant or not, is this: explore your options, then make the best choice for you, your family.
We can take back the state of health care, one decision at a time.
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