This was so cool to read. If it makes you feel any better, I'm a stay at home mom -- have been for 9+ months -- and I still wonder where the days have gone, I still feel like she's growing up too fast and I can never spend enough time with her.
All any of us can do is our best. Good luck in Columbia with The Farm -- that is SOO cool. Come back sometime and tell us what it's like working with Ina May! :)
I live in Tennessee and had an AWFUL birth experience. If I ever get past it and want to have another child, I hope to be able to make it to Columbia, to the Farm and this OB. It is about time the medical community sees what they do to women is, dehumanizing, humiliating, demoralizing, disrespectful and abusive. This doctor seems to be on a different and more respectful path.
Wonderful.!! I live in Columbia, TN and I am an apprentice midwife working with a CPM also here in Columbia. We need more doctors like you. I am so excited that you're coming to my town and I hope to get the chance to meet and work with you. Heather Crandall
I'm a doula in Columbia, TN. I'm thrilled that she has accepted a position with a practice here. She will be a wonderful breath of fresh air here! We have The Farm & The Farm Midwives in our backyard but unfortunately, the OBs & hospital here are not very natural birth friendly.
I am an ob/gyn practicing since 1995, now in NYC and Bali, Indonesia (Yayasan Bumi Sehat), supporting midwives and encouraging home birth. I have always planned to have a home birth, if I am ever lucky to have a baby. I refer many of my patients to local home birth midwives. So there are more of us out here! And Ina May Gaskin is my friend and a true inspiration. This OB will be lucky to be a backup for The Farm midwives, and it sounds like they will be lucky to have her! Dr. Eden Fromberg
Your amazzing, i complety believe in home births an i believe they are better because in hospitals these days they make u lay on your back Hook u to wires an stay there, (from all the births iv witnessed) but to be at home an in your own relaxing place is healthy an less stressful, u get to move stand how u want! im not saying that hospital births are always the wrong choice everybody is different but i think for someone to say breastfeeding an home births are not safe an just stupid are people uneducated about it!
I loved her birth story and would love to see how she impacts the world around her for the better. It's exciting to think about just in the lives of the moms, doctors, and nurses she works with. What an amazing opportunity she has! I loved reading this. Thank you. :) I've experienced two hospital births and one home birth and it was a night/day difference. Loved hearing it from a doctor's perspective.
My mother gave birth to my brother and then me in the early 60's at home, after her first birth at a hospital. I went on to attend several births and had both my daughters at home 20 and 16 years ago. I have since attended births at home and in hospital. In fact my first daughter's birth is the only home birth in Gentle Birth Choices. (That's a whole story itself - it was never supposed to be a nationally distributed video). Being at the emergence of a new life never fails to stun me with awe. My births were certainly not easy, but oh my, how much better they were for being at home!! The hospitals births I have attended have always left me a bit sad - watching the constant interference, the inevitable c-section due to induction leading to exhaustion, leading to stress on the baby, leading to .. blah blah ... I have huge respect for western medicine - I wish western medicine had half as much respect for birthing women. Thank you for this article - home birthing gave me enormous respect for myself and the sturdiness to face the onslaught of newborn care and birth recovery. Much love ... Nicola H
I had an out of hospital birth before I started working as a high-risk Labor & Delivery RN. I get those subtle comments too among my co-workers. If I get pregnant again I will plan an out of hospital birth. What a lovely post, thank you!!!
EXCELLENT!!! One questions I would have liked is: Do you think your views on how the hospital/physicians operate will impact your career? Do you think there will be change to the way hospitals approach births?
This is so amazing! But I have to speak up the T-incision thing! I ended up with a c-section that turned into a T-incision, had a repeat csection with #2 (because I was told I always had to have csections) and with number 3 I did my research and had a VBA2C after an inverted T incision in October at an independent birth center with a midwife. Here's my story http://thegiftofgivinglife.com/?s=mandy
You don't have to have csections after a different scar type. Go to specialscars.org or join our community of Special Scars~ Special Women on facebook. We have had SO many succesful VBACs this year alone, including classical scars, J scars, Inverted T scars and even preterm scars of all of those! And I hope this wonderful OB will also do her research and help deliver Special Scars Mamas too!
I second the VBAC after Special Scars! I got an Inverted T for my 2nd cesarean - breech turned transverse baby. The vertical extension "extended well into the fundus" and was measured at 8 cm. I've VBAC'd on that scar twice - once in a birth center and once unassisted at home because it was STILL that hard to find a care provider to assist me with my scar. Don't fear the scars! Uteri heal amazingly well. :-)
Jessica Tiderman President Special Scars ~ Special Women http://www.specialscars.org
you are so awesome!! but in regards to that inverted T comment... I also got an inverted T for a footling breech discovered late in transition. then 2 more low transverse sections bc that's what happens after an inverted T, right? not unless you're ok with that! i had a VBA3C with an inverted T in Aug 09 that was absolutely perfect! oh, and an OB attended me, fully supportive of my plans! i hope as an OB you would consider being special scar friendly too!
Another inverted T VBAC here! I had a home birth VBAC with Inverted T supported by an OB and MW team. Forty hours of labor with 24 hours of being dilated to 10cm with a bulging water bag AND four hours of pushing and out came a 9+lb baby with a 39cm head :)
Awesome!! I love hearing about medical professionals who choose out of the medical mainstream! I think that really speaks to the risks of hospital birth and *unnecessary* medical intervention. However, I also had an unassisted home VBAC with an preterm (29 weeks) inverted-t incision. I was told that *if* I chose to ever have more children (which my ob did not recommend), I would not be "allowed" to go into labour and would need to schedule a section at 37 weeks. I could not find an ob to support me, and knowing the hostility and judgment I'd have to confront in the hospital, I stayed home as long as I could and "accidentally" gave birth to my 8lbs 1oz son (my biggest baby yet) on my own. It was a very easy, uncomplicated delivery, and with my background as a RN in the NICU and along with all the research and preparation I had done during the pregnancy, I was very confident in this decision. It was amazing. I would encourage you, as an ob, to support women with "special scars" in the future. VBAC may not be for every woman for various reasons, but those of us who are searching for a care provider who *will* support us in our determination for a normal birth would greatly appreciate having supportive, understanding women (and men) like yourself in the field of obstetrics. Congratualtions on your awesome birth!!
This brought tears to my eyes! Thank you for the interview, it brings a bit of comfort to me knowing an undercurrent of change is possibly happening in the hospitals!
No! No! No! PLEASE don't move to TN! We need you here in KS! Why don't you move to Manhattan, KS, start a private practice (so we have some competition for the ONE-and-ONLY group of OBs here), and support us homebirthers!
Fabulous post. We are hoping for a homebirth this time around (#2). We are going to see the short film "Face of Birth" in March which has a broad range of experts on both sides of the 'argument'. Looking forward to it... Have you heard of the film?
Loved this story! If you have a breech or transverse baby, please consider chiropractic care. A simple adjustment can do wonders for allowing a baby to do the turning on its own. One or two adjustments, and I felt a *flip* a few days later and all was well. I had planned a water birth, but the midwife told me that if I wanted to deliver this baby, I'd have to get out of the water because her shoulder was hung up. It was the toughest of my five, but a great birth nonetheless. I did take her to the chiro a few days after she was born for an adjustment after all she had to go through too.
I had a 10.5 lbs OP, asynclitic boy as my first baby. I did push for two and a half hours. I did have a CNM that I say saved my life. She never gave up on me and I was able to get that big guy out vaginally. Without a doubt if I had gone with an OB doc I know I would have had a c-section. I just thought it was hilarious that this was your fear, because I didn't even know it was possible and I got through it. It was an amazing experience too.
I would love to know what childbirth education class she took. It sounds like Hypnobabies. :) Regarding her work and mommy balance, I wonder if she's thought of working as an OB at a birth center, or establishing her own Homebirth practice! She could set her own patient load and have baby with her.
I am a neonatal nurse that attends deliveries (I do the baby stuff in the delivery room) and I am 8 months pregnant with baby #3 (first home birth). I can definitely relate to your story! I want to talk about my birth plans, but I feel like I have to keep it a secret or else be ridiculed or yelled at by my colleagues. I don't want to take on any external fear or negativity from anyone else! It is hard to be a hospital birth worker but planning an out of hospital birth!
Comments
All any of us can do is our best. Good luck in Columbia with The Farm -- that is SOO cool. Come back sometime and tell us what it's like working with Ina May! :)
Heather Crandall
Being at the emergence of a new life never fails to stun me with awe. My births were certainly not easy, but oh my, how much better they were for being at home!!
The hospitals births I have attended have always left me a bit sad - watching the constant interference, the inevitable c-section due to induction leading to exhaustion, leading to stress on the baby, leading to .. blah blah ...
I have huge respect for western medicine - I wish western medicine had half as much respect for birthing women.
Thank you for this article - home birthing gave me enormous respect for myself and the sturdiness to face the onslaught of newborn care and birth recovery.
Much love ...
Nicola H
You don't have to have csections after a different scar type. Go to specialscars.org or join our community of Special Scars~ Special Women on facebook. We have had SO many succesful VBACs this year alone, including classical scars, J scars, Inverted T scars and even preterm scars of all of those! And I hope this wonderful OB will also do her research and help deliver Special Scars Mamas too!
Jessica Tiderman
President
Special Scars ~ Special Women
http://www.specialscars.org
We are going to see the short film "Face of Birth" in March which has a broad range of experts on both sides of the 'argument'. Looking forward to it... Have you heard of the film?
I just thought it was hilarious that this was your fear, because I didn't even know it was possible and I got through it.
It was an amazing experience too.