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June 06, 2005
Midwife @ Home & Preperations
Friday I had my first midwife's appointment at home. It was 3 weeks overdue between 2 births and a trip to Vegas getting in the way, and as a result 6 weeks since the last one, but being that I've had so few problems over the months, it didn't worry me, or her obviously.
It's kind of weird being out of the office setting, but cool at the same time. Definitely a more relaxed atmosphere. Over the next weeks we'll be focussing on building up the trust relationship and talking about the birth, the various plans and hopes and fears and such.
We covered the usual bases, weight, bloodpressure (110 over 60) and fundal height. With the fundal height I'm a little under 34cm's, 33 and something, but it's certainly not something to worry about. Usually fundal height is the same amount in centimeters that you are along in weeks, which is interesting. Fundal height being a measurement taken from your public bone to the top of the uterus, which right about now sits an inch or two or so under my breastbone. The measurement could be influenced by a whole load of different things, including hydration and thus amnio fluid levels, or even if the baby's in a weird angle.
At my appointment I also asked Sakina why she doesn't make me do a urine test. In one of the pregnancy communities on livejournal people had been describing their usual prenatal visits, because one girl was wigging out over the fact that her OB wasn't measuring her fundal height each time, but did do the urine test. I know the urine test is to check for protein in the urine, which can be an indicator of other problems, but I just wasn't sure of her reasons for not making me do it. She told me that she basically considered it a waste of time and money. The reasoning behind that is that protein in the urine is a possible indicator of pre-eclampsyia, which is a serious condition, however, there are several indicators of that, including high blood pressure, and pedal edema. My blood pressure has been perfectly fine all throughout pregnancy (hell, my current bloodpressure is one that a lot of non-pregnant people would be envious of), and other than a little mild puffiness, I certainly don't have edema in my feet/ankles, hence two big indicators that I'm fine, and no reason to have more tests done. I really love how she's not one for more tests and interventions than necessary.
Mostly the rest of the appointment was just all kinds of questions and discussing various things, and regular chitchat. It's nice to know your caregiver on a level this indepth, you get a real feeling for their philosophies towards childbirth, which she had already outlined when we went to our first appointment. And it's nice to know that you're in the hands of someone who looks at things in a similar way that you do.
It was also comforting to hear that she doesn't consider anything late or overdue until 42 weeks and beyond, and she rarely uses the 40 week estimated due date as any kind of definitive marker. Many doctors seem to get really paranoid as soon as you hit 40 weeks, and then the pushing for interventions and inductions often begins... assuming they don't start earlier with the "your baby will be HUGE if you don't get it out soon", which is what happened with our upstairs neighbour, who had her baby earlier this week, and who originally wasn't due until late June (but for some reason was already scheduled for an induction on the 15th anyway, even though I don't think there was any medical reason for it).
So, a good 2 weeks or so after her doctors told her that her baby was already 7lbs, she delivered a baby boy at 6lbs 15oz. Yeah, that kid surely shouldn't have stayed in there another day longer he's so huge... NOT. For people considering babies in the future, remember that ultrasounds in late pregnancy for birthweight are notoriously inaccurate, and can be off by a pound or more either way, which is a huge margin of error for a baby with an average birthweight of 7-8lbs. So if you ever get told that you have a massive baby and you need to be induced early, they're probably full of crap. I don't know how many people I've seen mention on various communities that they got induced for so-called massive babies who birthed babies that were normal size, or even just small.
They were inducing her early enough that she was apparantly going to need an amniocentisis (which involves sticking a needle through your belly into the amniotic sack) first to check for lung maturity. If you even need to check for lung maturity that should tell you that it's way too soon. And bodies can birth babies much larger than 7lbs, so that really isn't a great indicator of a baby needing to be delivered early.
Yes, those are things that bother me, it's why I'm staying at home with a midwife who's not trigger happy with interventions.
The next appointment is in 2 weeks, and after that it's once a week until the kidlet decides to come out. The next appointment is also the internal exam appointment. Sakina will be testing me for Group B Strep, and I'll get a papsmear too. I could have opted out of the pap, but seeing as it's been a year, I figured I might as well get it all done at the same time and get that over with. I'm not sure if she'll also check for effacement and dilation at that appointment, but it's possible and likely.
Between now and the next appointment PreZ and I also need to put our Birth Plan together, not that it's strictly necessary, especially not with a homebirth, but it's nice to have it down on paper anyway.
We also went ahead and ordered the baby bed this weekend, and a couple of other items here and there like the diaper bag. It's getting to be time to have the basics ready... no more "oh, we have plenty of time to buy/organise that". Next week or so it'll also be about time to head into NYC to go to a store "The Upper Breast Side" to fit for nursing bras, and around the 36 week marker I'm going to want to put the plastic mattrass cover on the bed. I feel more comfortable knowing that if my water breaks while I'm asleep at some point, that I'm not going to end up with an oogie mattrass. We have a seperate washable mattrass pad, so that'll make it less noticeable to lie on. This week I'll probably also order the birth kit, which has the stuff that the midwife will use... gloves, cord clamp, gauze sponges and all that jazz. Now everything just starts cranking into a higher gear.
So also time to get as much housecleaning out of the way as I can, basically a kind of spring cleaning thing, do everything thoroughly so that I can do minimal upkeep afterwards. I also need to crack open my "Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month" book and start organising my freezer and cooking up batches of stuff in advance. I already have some disposable dishes/cutlery etc. for the early days (weeks?) when sleep deprivation leaves us with little time and energy to do anything. I hate having to buy that kind of stuff, but it's for a good cause... my/our bedrest. Soon I can start laundering all the clothes that we already have too so that they're ready.
And I'm probably still forgetting a gazillion things. But most of this will probably keep me occupied for the next weeks.
Posted on 01:47 AM to: Pregnancy