Home Visit and Homebirth

Today, my midwife and her midwifery student visited our house in preparation of Henry's birth. After having them here, I feel like I'm totally prepared to have Henry. I thought I'd have more to say about the visit but, other than the tour of my house and the location, it was like every other midwife visit I've been too. The first half of the visit consisted of chatting and question answering and during the second half, the midwife felt and measured Henry, listened to his heartbeat and took my blood pressure. Henry is in the perfect position (head down, facing left), the right size, with a strong heartbeat and his mommy has a nice, low blood pressure.

Surprisingly, I rarely have to explain my reasons behind my choice to have Henry at home. Of course I had to explain things to Lawrence and my younger sister needed convincing (she's still confident I'm crazy) but most people seem to take the news of my choice pretty well. Maybe they're just being polite, not wanting to say how crazy they think I am. For the longest time, I've thought a home birth would be nice. No idea why I've wanted a home birth; I don't know anyone who've had a home birth, my mom had all of us in the hospital. I had said, though, that I'd have the first one in the hospital, just to make everybody feel better. As I got closer to childbearing age though, I started doing some research into the birthing process. The more I learned about the modern medicalized birth, the more it freaked me out. The more I learned about midwifery and home birth, the more I felt it was just right. 

At the start of the pregnancy, I started seeing the nurse midwives at Group Health with a plan to deliver at St. Joe's, mostly because I thought it was the only option. I kept doing more research and during an appointment at Group Health, I started asking questions that then lead the nurse midwife to suggest I look into home birth. So I did. Having Henry at home just feels like the right decision. Women have been having their babies at home for thousands of years and I won't be any different. I get to stay in my own home, eat when I want, watch my movies and TV shows, listen to my music and be in control of the environment. I believe that by having my baby at home, my labor will be much easier.