Tuesday, October 18, 2011

16 week midwife visit

Well I finally have a computer back, time for a proper entry. My last entry was done on my iPhone - a bit tedious if you ask me! :)

I realized I never once talked about choosing my midwife. I talked about WHY I chose a homebirth midwife but not why I chose my specific midwife. Silly me! I will fill y'all in right now: So, sometime after I had Kieran I had started to do research on what had happened to me - the pre-e/HELLP, how it can possibly be prevented, etc. I remembered an old boss of mine had had HELLP syndrome with her first baby but not her second, so I decided to ask her what she had changed, if anything. She told me that while pregnant with her second, at 26 weeks, she started to get pre-e signs. She reached out to a local forum about what to do and a midwife replied - she gave her many thoughtful suggestions - change diet, lower stress, high protein, exercise, etc. This woman reports that the suggestions she received helped her turn around that pre-e diagnosis and she went on to deliver with no complications! She saved the whole conversation and copied/pasted it to me in a Facebook message. I never forgot the name of that midwife.

This summer, when Josh and I made the decision that at SOME point we would try for one more, I decided to call around to some local homebirth midwives. I had never done such preemptive planning, it felt great! I spoke with a few midwives about the changes I made, asked if they'd be comfortable taking me, asked about their experience, etc. I did speak to the midwife I referenced earlier and I loved her! So when it came time to interview midwives in my first trimester, she was the first one I scheduled. And, she ended up being the one I picked, without further interviewing? So - why did I pick her without seeing anyone else? Well, in addition to that success story from my former boss, in the interview, my midwife told me about a success story she had. I was hungrily looking for these success stories of people conquering pre-e - there had to be some, right!? Well, she shared with me that one of her clients had birthed 4 babies in a hospital and had had pre-e and gestational diabetes. When she had her 5th child, she sought out this midwife and birthed her baby at home with no pre-e or GD! And she had a 6th child at home as well - again, no complications! I was so awestruck. I knew she'd be able to help support me through this. I also personally knew a woman who had had pre-eclampsia & gestational diabetes with her first child (with a different midwife) and when she hired my midwife for her 2nd and 3rd births, she had no pre-eclampsia OR GD and credits much of her success to a diet and lifestyle changed supported by her midwife. So she came highly recommended from quite a few sources, and I felt comfortable with that from the get-go.

I still love her. She is fantastic. And the appointments, omg - THE BEST. Did you know homebirth midwives meet with you for an HOUR? A full hour! Not 30 minutes in a waiting room and 5 minutes with the doctor...an hour! That gives us lots of time to talk about everything - emotions, physical ailments, challenges or successes with my nutrition...it's so awesome. She and her apprentice really take the time to listen to Josh and I and we love it.

Today we had our 16 week appointment! For the first time, we tried to hear baby through the doppler but baby was WAY too active - just kept hearing my healthy placenta, ha! We'd hear the heartbeat for like, 2 seconds then baby would float away again. Ha! I felt my first two kicks last week! I haven't felt any since but boy oh boy do I feel this baby MOVE. So funny. Next month is our 20 week appointment, then I'll receive a referral to see a private practice perinatologist to do our 20 week ultrasound. He does the ultrasound himself and talks you through what you're seeing - unlike the ultrasounds techs who turn the screen away form you and can't tell you a damn thing, LOL. So we have that to look forward to! (And if I haven't mentioned it before, we are not finding out the sex!)

1 comment:

  1. Perinatoligist U/S are the best!! They have better equipment too (we found out B was a boy at 13 wks!!) as well as spending the extra time and doing it with you, we still has a u/s tech do all of B's but the dr was in there explaining it all and then some! :)

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