Zatera Ul

1. Mediphobia. When I was a kid, there was a 10-year stretch where my parents didn’t take me to the doctor at all (optometrist and dentist excepted), between falling out of a pickup and landing on my head in second grade and getting caught up on my immunizations before college (my first doctor had retired by then, we discovered). “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “Most things heal ok on their own” was the philosophy, and I never broke anything or got very sick. I also tend to faint when I get poked by needles, although not as easily as I used to.

I’ve also read too many birth stories where a “cascade of interventions” turned a mostly normal pregnancy into an unplanned Caesarian birth. A home-birth midwife fit my birth management philosophy much better than most doctors or even CNM’s would. (Thus, we waited until 42 weeks + 2 days for OLC to be born, rather than induce labor earlier.)

2. Settling in. I knew that when I was in labor, I wouldn’t want to get in the car, buckle my seatbelt, and ride to the hospital, even though it’s only a few minutes away. When we went in June for my unexplained abdominal pain (UTI, it turned out), it was an uncomfortable ride, and I felt every bump in the road. After all the work of getting the nest ready, it made sense to stay in it for the birth.

3. Personality. I’m extremely introverted, and not interested in having to deal with unfamiliar people during labor. (This was one of the best things about home birth–knowing ahead of time exactly who was going to be there.) I didn’t want the transition to the hospital, an unfamiliar place, to slow down or stall the labor. I knew that the more I was left alone during labor, the easier it would be for me.

4. Comfort. I knew from our experience in June that staying in the hospital is a lot like camping. The beds are hard, the nurses are often busy and forgetful, and the meal service isn’t entirely reliable. The comforts of home are found only at home. The hospital is a good place to go for drugs, but not so good for simpler pain management strategies; in June, I asked for a hot water bottle (to apply to the pain in my side so I could sleep), was told that they didn’t have them, and had to make do with a warmed blanket (not a good substitute).

5. Autonomy. I wanted to make certain choices without being hassled about them: forgoing electronic fetal monitoring (had that in June, and didn’t like it), using a labor tub, maximizing privacy and quiet, minimizing drugs and other interventions, and generally doing what I felt I needed to do in labor.