Mama v/s Hospital...An Uphill Battle

For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of birthing my babies at home, surrounded by familiar, comfortable things and those I love.  There is a wonderful simplicity about bringing a child into the world in the very place you love the most.  It's poetic, really.  Empowering.  

Up until the 1930's,  95% of women had their children at home. Truth be told, the origins of hospital birth have more to do with misguided attempts at creating an industry than the safety, comfort and sacred experience of birthing babies.  For years and years women were drugged, tied to beds and forced into having their babies in disgraceful, disrespectful conditions - having absolutely no way to control, enjoy or even just remember the experience.  Thankfully, these specific practices are no longer routine today, though some would argue that the current trend in birthing is hovering dangerously close to lending history to repeat itself.

It is so unfortunate that we live in a time of mass litigation.  Hospitals and birth practitioners alike are constantly making decisions  based on legality rather than the best interests or wishes of the mother and child.  There is no longer such a thing as a simple, low-intervention birth.  From the moment a laboring woman enters the hospital, she is hooked up to an IV, fetal monitor, told not to eat or drink anything and given multiple vaginal exams.  70% of women are hooked up to pitocin, over 80% given an epidural and of those, 30% (on the low end) end up with a c-section.  When did having a baby become an illness that needs to be treated and not an experience to be cherished and nurtured?

In Illinois, it is illegal to have a free-standing birth center and thus options for where to deliver are somewhat limited.  Go to the hospital or find a homebirth midwife.  And while there are several midwives in Chicago who do home deliveries, only one CNM will take on women who are interested in a HBAC (home birth after cesarean).  There are some risks associated with vaginal birth and previous section but after doing the research I have come to realize that they are minute.  And really, In God's hands.  It is unfortunate for me that this midwife, Sarah Simmons, will be out of town during the month of my due date.  So I am kind of upset.

No, I am angry.  I am angry that nobody cares what I want - that nobody cares what is best for my family.  That I have to go through a broken system which puts the odds in favor of a repeat c-section.  I am happy with the care I have been receiving with the hospital-based midwives I have been seeing, but I have to follow my heart.  And so I am beginning to look into "under-the-table" type care for a home birth.  Midwives who are direct-entry instead of educated in typical university setting.  The kind of midwives that existed for the entire history of the world up until the mid-20th century.  Wish me luck.  I'll need it.