Home Birth

For those of you who don't already know I am pregnant. AGAIN. I found out a few days before the triathlon and am just now emerging from the pregnancy induced haze that is the first trimester.

So this blog may take on a slightly different tone.

I do plan to update some information for peeps before the Chicago triathlon kicks off but probably not in time to help with training. Good luck to all you crazy triathletes! I hope to join you all again soon! And after my experience practicing open water swims in Lake Michigan (more on that later) you are awesome to swim through it!

But onto home birth. As I was coming to grips with the idea of giving birth again the thought of going back to the hospital was turning my stomach.

After the girls were born the general consensus was I should be grateful not to have had a c-section. Forget that the resident at the hospital broke my water accidentally when I was having a routine exam done. Forget that after birth my bladder was paralyzed and I had to ask for HOURS to have someone put in a catheter because I felt like I was about to pop. Forget that. I should be grateful. Grateful for my babies and grateful that I didn't die.

But that doesn't feel quite right to me.

This is not to say that I don't think hospitals are sometimes a necessary part of the birth process. It seems that's always the argument when you express anti hospital sentiments. Do you want to put mother's and babies at risk? Do you have a death wish?

This is not at all the case. This is Tom's and my decision and we hope it's the right one. So far everything is going incredibly smoothly, we are healthy and happy and as long as baby and I stay that way we want to have our birth at home, in a quiet space, surrounded by our family in a way that feels natural and right to us.

So. How to begin.

I'm not insane or an uneducated woman. I approached this the way I've found you have to approach most everything in health care these days. I did some research, some talking to people and I shopped around for my care provider.

Surprise!

There actually are not very many CNM's that practice home birth in the Chicago area.

Here are the ones that we found and interviewed:

Sarah Simmons (doesn't have her own web site - came highly recommended - can find her info through Birthlink or see the link below)

Hillary Kieser


Jennifer Gagnon

I think we are close to making our decision and of course I will fill you in on all the details including what questions we asked that were the most helpful.

Here are some other practitioners who also offer home birth in the Chicago area:
Birthlink Practitioners

Here's some of the research I came across:

Safety of home birth


Outcomes of home birth

Home birth versus hospital birth outcomes

And if you haven't read it or seen a copy any of Ina May Gaskin's books are filled with stories of natural home births, hippy style that make me want to drive all the way to Tennesee to give birth on The Farm.

Tom is of course onboard but has also been vocal in expressing the fear he has, however distant, in his heart. Oddly enough, it seems to me it's not so much, "what if something goes wrong?" it's more "what will people's reactions be if something goes wrong?" Will they fault us and call us unfit parents, say we got what we deserved, treat us even more poorly at the hospital because we didn't 'choose them first'?

In trying to live our happiness, we are trying hard to speak our truth. How can people truly know you if you don't follow what your own mind and body says is right and not let your fear of society's criticism guide your decision making. Even though I'm a little scared things just feel like they are heading in the right direction. I'm hopeful that the more I can share these thoughts the easier they will become to express. I don't want to fear people's judgments of me and my choices. I've spent too much of my life worrying about what other people think of me already.

I will be writing more frequently so check in soon and leave me some comments, questions or smart remarks.

Stay cool!
Dana