What's your plan?

I'm starting to think of all the things regarding Miss A's birth that I want to go differently. Here's what I've got so far:

-No c/s!
-Natural birth aided by Hypnobabies (anybody else doing this method?)
-Labor mostly at home (My water broke last time and I had 2 contractions at the hospital while waiting for the OR).
-Delayed cord clamping


So what are you ladies thinking this time around?

 

Well, I've already had my baby #3 but the big changes for me were midwives instead of an OB or doctor, birthing at home instead of the hospital, and the absolute bare minimum of interventions humanly possible, both during the pregnancy & also during the labour & birth.

I didn't do hynobirthing, but I've heard many good things about it. I can't wait to hear how it works for you, Michelle. :good:

 

I'm doing a homebirth next time. I am so done with hospitals and OB's it's not even funny.

 

I am so excited for you!!! My plan was to have Easton vaginally but ended up with a c section UHG!

 

Once we knew there was only one this time, I wanted to have a home birth or at the most go to a birthing center. Unfortunately there just aren't any options for that where I live and my insurance won't cover the costs. I did find an OB & midwife team who are very pro-natural birth though. I wanted to go into labor on my own, have a natural birth (which I did with the twins) and stay in the hospital for as little time as humanly possible. My OB had said if everything was fine, he would discharge me in 6 hours but our insurance made me stay for at least 24. Because I was induced with the twins, I really wanted to go on my own this time. That didn't happen either! I was still induced with Josh at 11 days past my due date. After having him, I hemorrhaged and had to stay an extra day in the hospital. But I did have a natural birth so at least there was that!

 

There is 1 birth center in my state that by law can't take me because of my vbac. :grr: How antiquated is that?! The more I read the more intrigued I am with home birth... If I knew we were having 4 I'd probably do #4 at home. I feel uncomfortable jumping from as medicalized as it gets (surgery) to homebirth. Of course, by laboring at home so long I'm running the risk of the paremedics delivering her (lol). We live about 10 min away from the hospital, though. Ideally I'd like to arrive about 30 min before she's born. :lol:

 

When I was due with Josh, honestly I was petrified of going into labor at home! I wanted to go into labor on my own so much, but we live 30 minutes, if there's no traffic, from the hospital! I was scared I wouldn't make it to the hospital in time. Add to that my husband being sent on travel from my week 36-39. Then I was scared if I went into labor and was in too much pain to drive, an ambulance would take me to the wrong hospital! I live in one county but was using a hospital in the next county over, the ambulance would have taken me to the one in his county. I figured if I did go into labor on my own, I'd end up with a home birth anyway simply because I wouldn't make it to the hospital! :lol: When I was induced with him, I ended up going from 3 cm to pushing in about 25-35 minutes. :blink:

 

We're doing hypnobabies here too! I did it with the boys and loved it. Best birth - it was amazing. We got our VBAC last time with them (and my dr was wonderful- I didn't even have to have an epidural like so many drs make you!)

This time is another VBAC. I'd love to have a homebirth too but have a cerclage in and we're an hour from the hospital. So if anything went wrong we'd have too far to drive for help. So we will labor at home as long as possible and then head off to the hospital. My labors are super fast, so we have a fine line between waiting too long and not enough. I do NOT want any interventions, hence waiting as long as we can. This time around I don't want the baby to be taken away either. 1 parent will be with him at all times. Last time they took the boys only for a hearing test and hours later they still weren't back. When asked about where they were the nurse looked shocked and said "well, we usually leave them in the nursery until they start crying". Umm - why not just bring them back to the mom? So this time around they will NOT be taking them anywhere without us. Especially since I nurse and have heard many stories about nurses popping bottles into babies mouths when they cry rather than bringing them back to mom.

We'll also be declining the Hep shot (we are not at any risk and will get it later on when baby is bigger). Other than that we had a pretty good experience with the boys (we didn't get that shot with them either.) The nurses were really repspectful of my wishes for a natural birth and even brought in a doula to help (I didn't need her because by the point we got into L&D I was already complete and ready to push). But it was nice to know that they understood.

 

Pretty much I want a VBAC, have been told my doc is sort of VBAC friendly... but I have more questions for him, since one of the m/wives in his practice told me last month that their practice "doesn't do vbacs"... haha... he never said that. But I have to laugh, I have access to the hospital stats, and wow, out of 2500 births - with about 500 repeat c-sections there were 8 VBACS! and no cancelled ones. haha... probably won't happen.

anyway, last time pretty much nothing I wanted happened, but then again, I don't think that I showed anyone my "birth plan" or rather wish list...

I'd like to have delayed cutting of cord - I've heard that may help with jaundice which the twins had for a few days.
would like my dh to have the opportunity to cut the cord - maybe he can help delay!

we did have my dh go with babies to nursery last time, and thankfully as soon as my bp was back to being better they brought babies to me and we nursed, so I want to make sure we nurse right away w/o any bottles from nursery.

I'd like to look into the hypnobirthing as I've heard it here, will have to look into that or hypnobabies as pp said. I think I really need to get more knowledgeable about laboring... so that I can get to the hospital after I'm well into labor and about ready to have this one!

 

Is your hospital baby friendly? Google baby friendly to see if there is one in your area. I liked that aspect of my last hospital. Babies were encouraged to be with moms at all times, nurses were trained by LCs to provide help with nursing and they didn't push bottles even when I had a baby who was under 5 lbs with jaundice.

I'll do a vit k shot but no silver goop or hep B, either.

 

I'm going to do delayed cord clamping if possible. I read the same thing and if I can avoid jaundice this time that would be really nice. I also like that a baby doesn't have to immediately breathe as long as the cord is pulsing. I don't like docs trying to force newborns to cry.

I'm reading Ina May's, 'Guide to Childbirth'- its really eye opening about natural childbirth.

 

My daughter was vaginal but she was almost 2 weeks late and I had to be induced. It was very hard on me and my daughter. This time with it being Mono-Die my doctor told me we had to have a C-sec to limit the risk for me and the babies. So nervous about it!!!

 

We have 2 hospitals in this area and only one has a NICU, so that's the one we use. With the other hospital if your baby has any issues they are transferred to the hospital we use anyway. And then we'd be in different hospitals the entire time. The hospital itself is pretty baby friendly I think and they were good once I told them my preference. It seemed to me like it was more like they assumed I didn't want the babies with me and would rather rest than have them back in my room. Other than that they were great with going with my birth plan that time - especially the fact that I wanted a natural twin VBAC. No one ever offered me drugs or acted like it was a crazy thing to want.

 

not for nothing as I understand the want to have as little intervention as possible but the "eye goop" is erythromycin ointment - it prevents blindness because of any unfriendly bacteria in the vagina - perhaps you can ask them to use less but of all things to refuse (the hep B shot etc) I don't think the ointment refusal is really wise...especially if you wind up GBS +

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but as I understand it the drops/cream are for bacteria due to gonorrhea and or chlaymidia, right? I've never had either and am perfectly willing to submit to a test before delivery to ensure that I am in fact negative for those particular diseases. If I had any doubt that I might be positive either now or in the past then I would not forgo it.

 

its actually for any unfriendly bacteria - while chlamydia and gonorrhea are the most likely culprits it does help if there is anything up there that can get into the babies eyes and blind them...it isn't painful for the baby (and realistically you could wipe it off right after they bring you the baby) - I understand refusing the Hep B and any unnecessary interventions, but my gut tells me this one isn't...

 

I know my concern with the eye ointment was possible interference with the "golden hour". We delayed it until after Emmett had nursed for the first time & he & I had had a real good, long cuddle.

 

they should be able to do it while you cuddle her...

 

We don't do anything to newborn's eyes over here and as far as I know the number of blind infants/children in the UK and the US is pretty much the same, despite this difference in practice. I know I asked the midwives when I had my children here (having watched way too many programs on discovery home&health) and they had never even heard of the eye goop. I think it is worth doing some proper research if you really do not want it in your baby's eyes. I know I wouldn't have (and none of mine got it, 3 born in the UK and 1 born in Spain).
M.

 

I actually spent the morning doing just that- some statistical research- and found that while the drops are out in primarily for STDs they are also for 'other' vaginal bacteria. Interestingly one study found that babies didn't have significantly better outcomes with the drops, leading the researchers to believe that the hospitals themselves have the STD bacteria, not necessarily the vagina of the mother. Also of note, neonatal conjunctivitis *can* lead to blindness if untreated. As there were pictures of what untreated babies look like bad I think what's best for my family is to not use the antibiotic drops unless Miss A actually gets an infection.