Intro - and picking a MW (Long)

smilormarie

Hi ladies.  I'm in Pike Creek (New Castle County) and I'm 10 weeks along.  I'm planning a med free birth due to our history in the signature below plus wanting to avoid tearing and bone breaks which I know is easier if you can feel everything and birth slowly.  I was primarily on the Trouble TTC board and have been frequenting the Sep 2013 and first tri boards now.  

Hubby and I have met with a midwife at the Birth Center in Wilmington and also met with a nurse at Maternity and Gynecology Associates at Christiana.  We won't get to meet the midwife there until the next appt on Mar 12 when I'll be over 13 weeks.  Luckily I got established early as a patient at the birth center because shortly after That appt I had some excruiating lower right abdominal pain that had to be further investigated.  I would have been between being released from the fertility clinic and not yet with Mat & Gyn which would have been a problem.  The birth center already has us for the next appt on Mar 6th.  Hubby suggested we say we're going with the birth center since both practices called in an order for me to have an appt at MFM to do our first tri screening and both practices gave me a slip for bloodwork (ordering slightly different testing which was weird).  He said then if we change our mind and go with Mat & Gyn we at least got all testing started with the MW we have actually been able to meet with.

1. I wanted to avoid giving birth in a hospital due to hospital protocols and interventions and stressors and thought the idea of a homey birth center would be perfect.  There's pros and cons to both though.  The birth center will allow me to eat and drink during labor which is important to me.

2. The birth center is far being in downtown Wilm since Hubby and I live in Newark and work in Newark/Elkton. Mat & Gyn at Christiana is super close.

3. Regardless of who my primary practitioner is at the birth center, I know we will have a midwife when it's time for delivery since that's all they have at the birth center.  Mat & Gyn already told me I will need to meet with the other OBs in the practice just in case the one and only midwife isn't available when I go into labor and I end up having a different practitioner (OB).  Yuck.  That makes me think I will absolutely need to spend the money to hire a doula to help with a natural delivery if we go with Mat & Gyn.

4. Hubby is worried in case I need to be transferred to the hospital or baby needs a NICU for some reason.  He dated a girl once who worked at St. Francis (the hospital only 2 mins from the birth center) and doesn't like that place.  I personally have never had any issues with the downtown hospitals.  The birth center prefers to transfer to Christiana hospital if there's time though.

5. The birth center has a labor / birthing tub in one room and a labor tub in another.  I don't see anything on Christiana's website about any tubs :-(

6.  If all else fails and I'm dying for drugs, the birth center does have IV pain meds.

7. The nurse at Mat & Gyn said its totally different birthing at Christiana now and if I have a birth plan they will try to respect that.  I'm trying to set up a tour to see how it compares to the birth center.  But the delay with that combined with the delay in meeting the MW at Mat & Gyn makes me think I should stick with the birth center until we know for sure either way.  

And off to schedule the first tri NT scan....