Disclaimer: Rant

It has been quite a whirlwind these past few days trying to get my prenatal care transferred to a caregiver. The whole process has made me learn that Maryland and Washington DC are not the best places to have a baby. I thought Illinois was difficult, but Maryland is worse.

Last week, I met with some wonderful midwives who work independently providing home births for women in Maryland. After speaking with them, I discovered that Maryland has actually made it illegal for CPMs and LMs to assist in home births. The reason for this is that you must be a "licensed" midwife to assist in a home birth, and Maryland will only license CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwives). Apparently only 26 states currently license CPMs, Washington being one of them (go Washington!). Anyway, so if you have a home birth with a CPM, in order to get a birth certificate, you must sign a document certifying that you had an unassisted birth. So infuriating on so many levels. Consider the un-insured pregnant woman in Maryland. Her options are basically as follows:
1. No prenatal care an an emergency room delivery
2. No prenatal care and an unassisted birth
3. Pay out of pocket for the astronomically high fees for a hospital birth (It's worthwhile to note that if the woman could afford a hospital birth, she could probably afford insurance)
4. Pay a midwife out of pocket and lie to the government about having an unassisted birth.

How are these good options? I totally feel like it is my right to labor how, where, and with whomever I choose. How is it fair for the state government to dictate my birth experience to this extent? And as Chris points out, how is it legal to get an abortion (in many cases partial-birth abortions), and yet not legal for a woman to choose how she gives birth?

Anyway, so on goes the search. Luckily, I have insurance, so we do have limited options, albeit home birth isn't one of them. There actually is a lovely birth center with CNMs who also do the home birth option for women in the DC Metro area. However, because they are so in demand in this area, their waiting list is a mile long. For a prenatal care transfer like me, this unfortunately is not possible. There is also a birth center in DC with CNMs, but they will not take transfers past 30 weeks, even with regular prenatal care. Maddening!

Since I had exhausted all the home birth/birth center options, my next task was to look for midwives who operate in hospitals, which actually isn't very common in the DC area. I did find a midwife group close to where I live, but they can't fit me in until late July! Thwarted again!

So, now I am searching for Ob-gyns who are natural birth-friendly in the metro area. And it is very discouraging to read posts on blogs and websites where people say an Ob who supports natural childbirth is an oxy-moron in the DC area. I have even read that there are Obs in the area who refuse to take on Bradley method women.

In the meantime, I have scheduled an appointment with an ob-gyn just so I can keep up with my regular prenatal visits. I'm hoping and praying that either something will turn up, or that I will have an easy birth experience. I am really not looking forward to battling doctors over giving me pitocin or a cesarean. However, I guess I will have gotten my money's worth out of our Bradley classes, since they prepare you specifically for an un-medicated hospital birth.

Whew! Sorry for the tirade, but it is very upsetting to get your hopes up for a certain birth experience, only to realize that you can't have that experience.

To end on an unrelated and happy note, we are pretty much finished with moving in (except for the baby's room) and I will have pictures of our fun little apartment soon. :)

Baby Shower!

Julianna, Andrea, and Becca threw me an awesome baby shower. I wish I could have gotten pictures of Julianna's beautiful table decor, because it really was lovely. We had a great time and it was so nice to see so many people there that I hadn't seen in a long time. Thanks to everyone for a great shower!






I am 32 weeks now, but this is my picture for 31 weeks (end of 7th month). Two more months to go!

This week I met the midwife (Laura Hamilton) who I would have worked with had we been staying in Washington for the baby. She did my checkup and she was awesome. So sad that I will not get to work with her. She was so nice to meet and did a little ultrasound to see the baby's position. She already could tell from feeling my belly that he was head down, but the ultrasound confirmed it. He's in an awesome position and is measuring right on schedule. My blood pressure even registered nice and low, which is awesome, as it had been steadily rising the past couple of months. So, everything looks great and we are in the home stretch. It is crazy to me that we only have 8 weeks left.

At this point, I am not ready to have this baby come out. As much preparation as I've had, childbirth is still a bit of scary prospect. It's hard to be so confident when all you hear all your life is that chidlbirth is the most painful thing you will ever go through. And there's also a certain amount of security knowing that Peter is safe in my belly where I can control everything about his environment (assuming I'm healthy and my body's working well). The prospect of giving up that control is a little scary.

During the past week I've definitely gotten to the uncomfortable part of pregnancy with being short of breath and sleeping badly and heartburn. Evidently I'm not uncomfortable enough though, because I still want Peter to stay put for now. I have read about lots of women who deliver at 32 weeks and I'm just hoping that I can get to full term. I think when Chris and I are finally together again, then I will feel a little bit more relaxed having him with me.

Speaking of Chris, he and his Dad are moving into our apartment tomorrow. It has been a long process for the two of them and I'm so grateful to them for all their hard work. I am sorry not to be of any help at this point, but kind of relieved all at the same time because of how physically uncomfortable I am. I am so excited to see our new little apartment, though. And I get to see my husband in just a few short days!! It will have been three weeks and two days that we have not seen each other, and I hope we will never have to separate for this long ever again. It's been great spending time with family here and I will miss them when I go, but I'm ready to be with my husband again.