I was almost 35 weeks pregnant when I decided to pursue a home birth. Up to that point I was prepared to deal with the 'inconveniences' that I had heard about from my friends who had delivered babies at hospitals in Brasilia. Dr Rachel Santos dos Reis was my OB and I had been seeing her since the beginning of my pregnancy. I was very interested in having a natural (unmedicated and vaginal) childbirth, and had heard that Dr Rachel was more or less the only choice. She is a wonderful doctor, and I was completely comfortable with her attending the birth. My main concerns dealt with the hospital red tape and pediatric care of my newborn.
Fortunately I had two pregnant friends who were also planning home births who introduced me to the idea, and later to their midwife, Paloma Terra. Another friend put me on to Rafaela Rosa, a physical therapist and doula (among many other things) who I started to see biweekly at around 30 weeks. It was during one of my sessions with Rafaela that I decided to call Paloma to see if she would attend my birth. I was asking Rafaela about the Santa Lucia delivery room and the standard procedure for the baby once it comes out. She confirmed that Dr Rachel would put the baby immediately on my body for skin-to-skin contact, but said that depending on the pediatrician, it may only be 5 or 10 minutes. This may seem like a small thing to some, but in my prenatal course I watched a video that showed babies completing the "Breast Crawl" (Widstrom et al. 1987). A later study found:
Of 17 babies kept in the Breast Crawl position and kept in uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact for 1 hour, 16 attached to the breast correctly. Fifteen babies in the other group were separated after about 20 minutes for routine measuring and weighing procedures. After an interval of approximately 20 minutes, they were returned to the mother. Only seven babies in this group attached correctly (Table 4). These findings are crucial because the early suckling pattern is of prognostic value for the duration and success of breastfeeding (Righard and Alade, 1990).
I was able to hold my first baby for an hour after his birth and he was able to complete the breast crawl and suckle, so it was important to me to have this option for my second baby, assuming everything went normally in my labor.
I also really wanted to be able to labor (and possibly deliver) in the water. For my first delivery it was not an option, but everyone I knew who had done a water birth said it was amazing. This was sort of an option at the hospital - my doula could bring a water birth tub to the hospital, set it up in the delivery room if there weren't any other laboring moms, and assuming it was set up in time I could use it - but it hinged on a lot of things going just right.
Another aspect of hospital delivery that became less appealing was the fact that my friends who had delivered in the hospital had a huge list of things to take with them. Pillows, pads, diapers, food, drinks, painkiller, towels, and more. As I started compiling my list, I found myself wondering what exactly the hospital was providing me. If I were a high-risk pregnancy, or if I had had trouble during my first labor, or if I was getting an epidural, then the hospital would have been the place for me. But I wasn't any of those things. And I was very afraid of getting a c-section just because it was more convenient for the hospital staff.
So for all of these reasons, I decided that the advantages of a home birth outweighed the benefits of a hospital birth.
I left my session with Rafaela and called Paloma. She had an opening and we met to discuss my suitability as a home birth candidate. After an in-depth medical history and an in-depth probing of my reasons for wanting a home birth, both Paloma and I were convinced that I could (and should) have my baby at home. Rafaela was on board to assist the delivery and to bring her water birth tub.
It is only now that I can see how many small things converged at the right time to help me arrive at the decision to deliver at home. It seems like a miracle that I secured a midwife just five weeks out from my due date. I'm so lucky to have a husband who was so supportive and good friends who encouraged me to stand up for the kind of birth experience I wanted my son to have.
Stay tuned for my birth story.
