Baby kicks, "Childbirth Revolution," trucks, pics, and more
I felt the baby move from the outside this weekend and I think Ava felt it too! Unfortunately, Jody wasn't home at the time, but I'm sure he will get to feel it soon enough himself as well. Exciting!
I got in touch with my friend's midwife and am scheduling an appointment to chat with her and learn more about homebirths so I feel like I've fully explored all of my options.
On a related note, I saw this article - about how England's government is supporting women to have homebirths - posted on another person's blog. Here's a bit of what it said. "Pregnant women are to be advised to give birth at home as part of a revolution in childbirth policy that will reverse decades of medical convention.
Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, is to "challenge the assumption", prevalent since the 1970s, that the safest place to give birth is in hospital and that home births can be dangerous.
In what is being billed as a historic shift in the politics of childbirth, doctors will be told to offer all pregnant women the chance to deliver their baby at home with the help of a midwife and their own choice of pain relief.
The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that the Government is planning a "strategic shift" in childbirth policy away from hospital delivery and towards births in the reassuring surroundings of home. It has commissioned research to support the case for home births and "challenge the assumption that births should take place in hospitals".
The Secretary of State wants to "demedicalise" pregnancy and challenge the "presumption" that birth should take place under the supervision of a doctor." ... (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article448999.ece)
I find it all absolutely fascinating and wonder if such a shift will ever be possible in the U.S.
I didn't end up getting to take Ava's 2 year pics this weekend, but we got our new bed delivered (which is nice, but going to take some getting used to) and went to a "Touch a Truck" event where kids get to see, climb into, play on and honk the horns in trucks, buses, construction equipment and emergency vehicles of all kinds. Ava thought the double-decker bus was pretty cool (and we went up on the top level), but I don't think she was all that impressed with everything else. She's been getting into construction equipment lately (always asking me "What is that?" when we are out and see something) so she got to see some things up close and personal. But the whole thing wasn't as big a hit with her as it was with the kids of some of my friends (who are boys - go figure). I'm sure it didn't help that someone honked a school bus horn right as she was standing in front of the bus (which scared the crap out of her and reduced her to tears). Poor pookah. The cool thing (IMO) about the event was that there was a plant nursery there giving away free flowers, so I got a whole flat of petunias. Score! :)
On Saturday, Jody got out bright and early to "window-shop" a few garage sales and came home with a Little Tikes kitchen, complete with a bag full of play food and dishes - all for $10. We're saving the kitchen for Ava's birthday, though she already got into all of the food/dishes since Jody had them out to wash them. We have to find a good way to store all of that. What a mess when it's all out over the floor! Eep. ;)
Yesterday I photographed my friend Brandy's newborn son. The shoot went really well and I'm happy with many of the pictures. After we got done with pics, Brandy and I sat around and talked a lot about homebirth and her experience with it. It was good to learn more from her while the experience is still very fresh in her mind.
Now that we are down to less than two weeks before my family gets into town and Ava's birthday party, I'm starting to clean the house in earnest and make food to freeze for the party. :)
Here's what I finally came up with for Ava's party invitations:
And now for a few pics of my chickpea. :)
Here's Ava playing outside (her favorite place to be) earlier this month:
And stopping to smell one of our flowers:
posted by Crunchy Domestic Goddess @ 4:17 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Hmmm - yes I found the British move interesting too. The response from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists here wasn't supportive. Home births constitute about 3-7 percent of births in NZ. I guess the good thing is that at least we have a choice here... and if that choice is home birth then you're able to find a maternity carer who will support that choice without compromising your care. While it's not the option I feel confident enought to choose, I am glad I am able to make that decision myself.
Hope Ava has a lovely birthday! Love the photos - you did a great job.
penny - that's interesting because i would've thought au/nz had a higher home birth rate than that.
i wish that you could use your insurance for homebirths here, just like you can for hospital births. if i do end up going with a homebirth, it will all be out of pocket. whereas, if i go the hospital route, i pay $10 for my first prenatal appt. and then nothing for anything else. (at least i'm pretty sure our insurance is that good this time around. i know it's heaps better than it was when i had ava.)
thx abt the bday and photos. :)
How much would it cost in total for a home birth? Would you have prenatal appointments at the hospital and then a homebirth? I'd imagine that all the prenatal checkups would add up to be quite a pretty penny if it were paid out of pocket.
You're quite fortunate that your insurance policy covers maternity care. Most individual plans exclude it if you want to pay a monthly premium that isn't through the stratosphere. This is one of the reasons Golf and I are having only one -- the cost of birth for a second child -- even in a home birth or birth center option is just so expensive!!! In Thailand, my international (and luxurious) hospital stay for 3 days was less than $1,000. Here, I'd pay upward of $10K or more... I shutter if there were any complications.
Oh, speaking of complications (and sorry this is becoming long) didn't you say that Ava's birth was complicated? What will you do if you decide on home birthing and this birth has complications? Have you and Jody come up with a strategy?
I love the pic of Ava with her flower. So cute! Just a week away for that girl! :)
Amy - I don't know specifics yet, but prenatal care is included in a midwife's fees and I think the total for prenatal care (which is sooooo much more involved than what you get at the dr's office) and the homebirth is around $2,000, but don't quote me on it. And I'm sure it varies by area.
Yes, we have awesome insurance right now (thank you, Google!). It wasn't nearly as good when Ava was born - she and I each had a $1,000 deductible, then we had to pay a percentage above and beyond that. It took us quite a while to pay it off on a payment plan.
I did develop complications (HELLP Syndrome) prior to Ava's birth. Fortunately, with something like that (and with almost any complication that can arise), there are signals and signs that happen well before the complication constitutes an emergency. So if I started to develop anything like that in advance, then a homebirth would be out the window and I'd go to the hospital. Chances are, I won't have HELLP again, but I definitely want to be prepared with a plan in case I do. And I think I will feel a lot better about that after having talked to the midwife. The particular midwife I'm interviewing has EMT experience so I feel like she'd be really good with thinking on her feet and responding appropriately should there be any complications. I really need to call her and set something up.
Thanks about the pic. :)
Hi, I found your blog through mamac-ta's, your daughter's pictures are beautiful, may I ask what camera you're using? hope to hear from you. thanks!
hi tia - thanks for stopping in. :) i have an olympus evolt e-500 that i use for my part-time photography biz as well.
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