The Adventures of The Wild West's: Why I am Choosing a Birth Center

My Top Five Reason I Choose a Birth Center

There are many people that think I am crazy for going to a Birth Center for my maternity care. I get it I really do. I am a little crazy for wanting to feel the pain, paying cash up front even though I may end up going to the hospital, and for leaving behind the “safe way” of giving birth. This was not something I came to lightly. I wanted an un-medicated birth with my first child David. That went out the door when I had to be induced at 37 weeks due to preeclampsia. This time I did tons of research. I listened to the Birth Hour and the Birthful podcast weekly. I read tons of Evidence Based Birth articles, Spinning Babies articles, and blogs from other mothers. I spent hours on Youtube learning and hearing real life stories. During the whole process of learning I became interested in the natural birth process and even considered taking doula classes.

Anyways with all that said I knew that this was the option for me. It aligned with my values and goals as a mother. Even if people think I have a low pain tolerance (my whole family) I can do this. I will show them I am stronger than they ever believed. One thing life has shown me is that I am tough as nails and everything life has thrown me to drag me down I have faced head on with God at my side and come out a winner. Birth will not get me down. I believe God create children as a blessing. Yes child birth may be the most painful experience but it is ended with a flood of hormones and endorphins that fill your body with unconditional joy and peace. I am ready to give birth to Miss Joann Lynn West at a birth center.

Reason One: Breaking Free From the System

If any of you follow me or personally know me you know I do things outside of the norm. I like to be mindful about all I do and research to know my best options. The same goes with what I do for my children. I am one of those crazy moms that has worked out 5 days a week since the start of the second trimester. I also read labels of what I buy for my son. But what changed my mind about the process of birth is learning the history of the medicalized birth. I learned my Memaw was put under during the birth of her children. There was no immediately skin to skin or bonding. You just went under pregnant and woke up with a baby. Then you research a little more and listen to birth stories. I don’t know about you but I am a learner; so with all big decisions I educate myself.

The creator of the Evidence Based Birth Podcast just came out with a book called Babies are Not Pizza; they are born not deliver. It may seem like such a stupid title but it makes perfect sense. I highly recommend reading her book and watching The Business of Being Born to get a better insight on medicalized birth. Now I have nothing wrong with it. I am so thankful and bless I was able to be induced with David and that I did not die from preeclampsia. There were just so many things that could have gone better with the process. Simple things like training nurses how to do pain free cervical checks, allowing me to walk to halls to start labor instead of being stuck in a room, and I had to wait miserably for over 6 hours for my OBYN to come in to break my water because her babysitter broke her arm when the on call OBGYN could have easily done it. I could go on and on but that is in the past. I wanted care providers this time around that were trained in ways to make the process easier on me and not just easier on them.

Reason Two: Personalized and Supportive Care

If you have been following me for a while you know I like to do things as naturally as possible. If I get sick my first step is to try all natural remedies and if those fail or take too long to take affect and I have to work I will take medicine. I will suffer through a headache for hours trying natural remedies before popping a pill. I like to stay away from processed foods as much as I can. I use essential oils and supplement like crazy. Some would call me a crunchy mom. With that being said I wanted a care giver for this pregnancy that would support me in those beliefs. Last time with my OBGYN she supported me 100% but never gave me more ideas and natural remedies for my problems. This time it has been magically different. My midwifes have not only supported me but encouraged me to seek out natural care. They referred me to a Chiropractor, the Spinning Babies website, and natural supplements. This is the level of support I feel all pregnant women should get. They are extremely supportive of all my wishes I have had so far.

Reason Three: Easier Recovery

When having an un-medicated natural delivery your recovery time is significantly less. With a birth center as long as no complications arise you will go home in less than 3 hours after baby is born. I remember with David I was induced and hooked up to monitors and starving with nothing more than ice chips if I got lucky for 48 hours. After that I didn’t get up and walk after labor from pure exhaustion till a day after giving birth. Once I finally got home I could barely get up off the couch alone for a week. It was nearly impossible to move and yet I was expected to take care of a new born while barely functioning. Let just say I ate a ton of crappy frozen food and David and I stayed in bed.

With that being said from all the un-medicated birth stories I have heard recovery was much easier as long as no complications arose. I will be moving throughout labor and shortly after. I also will be able to snack and eat during labor so I will not have to starve like last time. Also when birth has no interventions you have this amazing hormone rush that helps you recover a lot faster. I am so excited to experience birth a whole new way.

Reason Four: Better Breastfeeding Outlook

Now this will have fact mixed with my mother’s intuition so if you are looking for pure facts here this blog post isn’t for you. Sorry sista! With David I was 100% onboard with breastfeeding. I had researched how to do it and was 100% committed to solely breastfeeding him. David was not able to latch good or even be awake enough to nurse. We have NO idea if he got any colostrum. He was extremely lethargic. It is a proven fact that boys born before their due date can be more lethargic. I also think the medications and epidural made him more lethargic as well. At the end of the day my baby was not awake enough to work for his food. Not only that after night one he was diagnosed jaundice and we did not get much skin to skin time. I had to listen to him cry and not be able to comfort him and they forced under the UV lights. They even gave him a pacifier without my consent. It was torture to a mom but pure agony and mental distress for me as a crunchy mom. I pumped and pumped after every feed feeling like my nipples would rip off just to get my milk to come it. He syringe ate my milk, but they said it was not enough. Finally to be released from the hospital we had to feed him a bottle of formula. This killed me.

Once I got home my milk came in but I had a nipple confused baby. All it took was one 15 minutes session with an amazing lactation consultant at WIC to get me nursing my baby. No one at the hospital even the lactation consultant ever offered me a nipple shield and that was all I needed. I felt unsupported in Breastfeeding at the hospital. Yes they showed me what to do and so on but not like they knew what they were doing. Once I met the lady at WIC everything changed. David and I successfully Breastfed almost 2.5 years. I am happy the birth center will not make me put Joann under the UV lights if she is jaundice. They will just suggest going out in the sunshine which is what her body truly needs. I am also happy my midwives are truly educated in breastfeeding and know the tips and tricks if problems do arise. An OBGYN never checks on that.

Reason Five: Empowerment

One thing I so often hear is how empowering birth can be. I was left after a traumatic birth and a failing first week of breastfeeding feeling depressed and like an ultimate failure as a mother. This is not how it supposed to be mamas. I struggled with having the motivation to clean or do anything more than just make David happy because in my eyes I had failed him in so many ways. Now I know I did not fail but everything in me told me I did. Like I said earlier with a birth that has no too few interventions you get a massive hormone rush postpartum to help your do your job as a mom and feel the right ways. I needed that with David. Call me crazy but in my eyes if you have had an un-medicated natural birth you are a powerful woman in my eyes. You embraced one of the most painful and hard challenge life has to offer. I think that is an incredible rite of passage. Now of course I think nothing less of mothers who had other birth experiences.

At the end of the day I want to have an amazing birth experience and I have done a ton of research into what choices I want to make for the birth of my daughter. Are all the choice the right one? NO! There aren’t perfect answers in birth, it simply hasn’t been studied enough. If you are pregnant or planning on having more children the best thing to do is research. Study all the options. Read books and take courses and be prepared for birth.

Here are some of the resources I used: