Warning: long-winded post ahead

So I think most of you know we're planning on a home birth for this one. There's lots of reasons and I could list them all, but that would be a long, detailed, boring post. I just wanted to post my midwife's webpage, in case anyone's curious: http://sweetmidwiferycare.com/

It is nothing short of awesome having a midwife, though. My prenatal appointments go like this: she comes to my house (no driving! no babysitters!!), has all her gear in a little rolling suitcase, I get weighed, urine tested, blood pressure taken, belly measured, baby's heartbeat listened to- absolutely everything they do in the doctor's office. Except it's personal and my kids can be involved. She asked Caitlin if she wanted to do the jelly on my belly for the baby's heartbeat- she said no, but I bet she will next time. She's at my house about an hour, talking about nutrition, exercise, any questions I have, etc. She has books and videos I can borrow about birth. Contrast that with my ob/gyn appointments- 20 minutes driving to/from, waiting 1 hour in the waiting room, waiting 20 minutes in the exam room, the doctor comes in for literally 5-10 minutes, talks to the nurse ABOUT me rather than at me, and barely takes the time to confirm all is well before hustling to his next appointment. Most ob/gyn's do about 30 births/month. My midwife limits herself to 4. This is because she'll come as soon as I call and say I'm in labor, vs. my doctor who comes the last 5 minutes to catch the baby after the nurses have done all the work. Granted, you have to be having a low-risk, normal pregnancy for any responsible midwife to take you, and it's smart to be in close driving range of a hospital (we're 15 minutes away). If anything in the course of my pregnancy turned high-risk, she'd refer me back to an ob/gyn.

There's a couple of good, qualified midwives here in Vegas, these women aren't hippies. They are educated, qualified professionals who are credientaled and very experienced. I'm a little partial to mine, of course, because she has a few perks: 1)she comes to my house! all the other midwives I know of have offices for their patients to come to. 2) she's a full-fledged MD from Venezuela, where she's from, so she has a very strong medical background and knows how to spot an emergency. She's not anti-medicine or anti-doctor. 3) she lived with an LDS family for a year as an exchange student, so she knows quite a lot about our religion. She knows what garments are about and if I needed a priesthood blessing or wanted to say a prayer or whatever during labor, she knows what those are and what they're for, and is very respectful of our religion. Those are just a few perks that led me to choose her over others, plus she's just very personable and friendly, so it's more like a friend/midwife which was important to me since this is a pretty personal experience.

So that's a basic rundown. Sorry, this wasn't supposed to be boring and detailed! There's lots more I could say...but I better stop here!

Also, we're getting our ultrasound on Monday the 8th!! So look for a girl-or-boy post!!