The idea of a "Better Birth a Better Bond" came to me after I have seen and experienced a wide spectrum of births. Personally I have had possibly two unnecesary c-sections, one necessary c-section, three unecessary inductions, one natural birth in hospital and one beautiful homebirth. First I was naive, being only 17 I really had no idea of what a birth experience in a big city hospital would be like. After 14 hours of labor an infection and a c-section following I had a much better idea. I spent many months after the birth of my son wondering why my body couldn't birth him. His birth made me decide that I would try to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after ceasaren). So 18mths later in a smaller city hospital..I victoriously birthed my second son! I had a VBAC..it was the most powerful feeling, knowing what I had just accomplished. I felt so much better too. This birth was what I dreamed of at the time, however the interaction with the nurses and my newborn son following is what made me distrust hospitals and their staff. The nurses removed my completely healthy baby and took him "somewhere" for two hours and did "something" with him for that time..To this day (almost 12 years later) I still don't know what was going on. My husband finally demanded that our son be returned to us. It was after my 2nd son's birth that I began searching out midwifery and homebirths. When I became pregnant for the third time I went to see the local midwives and I knew this is what I wanted. I had a lovely home birth with my first daughter, words can not describe how happy both me and my husband were. The midwives explained to us during all my appointments what certain test were for and whether they were necessary or not. It was a completely different experience with midwives as opposed to O.Bs the midwives actually listened and provided information. Well that birth went so well that I soon found out I was pregnant again about three months later. Went back to the same midwives, unfortunately this time there was a new midwife (a previous O.B nurse) who didnt share my grassroots philosophy and right away I could sense it and so could my husband. Sad to say the birth of my fourth child my second daughter was on of the worst experiences I have had. Firstly my waters had broken so this midwife was panicking and shipped us off to the hospital..but my daughter was not ready to be born yet so no labor had started. They gave me pictocin and nothing happened except me getting very tired. Meanwhile my midwife just left us in the hands of a very overbearing O.B...my midwife just vanished.We never saw her again. So the next morn they started up the pitocin again and it worked followed by very painful contractions followed by gas and demerol and nurses and the O.B. yelling push push push! Followed by a grey baby with cord around the neck and apgars of 2..She pinked up quickly but I felt sad and confused and my marriage was also affected. My faith in midwifery was gone, crushed. We at that time were not planning on having anymore children but 5 months later we found out we were having number 5. We had moved to a different area and I wasn't sure what I was going to do as far as prenatal care.. I had this crazy idea of just doing it on our own..but that was crazy right? So I did some searching around and found a midwife who seemed very down to earth. Once again however I had PROM (premature rupture of membranes) so my homebirth plans went out the window and I was induced and delivered a little girl at a small rural hospital. I suffered from post-partum depression (ppd) after this birth so my husband went and got a vasectomy which made the ppd even worse. It almost destroyed our marriage. But thanks to a Loving God and His plan for us..He healed our marriage and we knew that my husband had to have a reversal. So three years after the vasectomy was done, my husband had it reversed and five months later I was pregnant!. I went back to my previous midwife I thought things would be better but they weren't. At 36 weeks my waters broke and because I was so early I had to go back to that small city hospital that I detested so much. I was once again induced and birthed a 6lbs 11 oz baby boy..The birth was not what I wanted but I had a beautiful baby boy which I had been hoping for, for such a long time. Five months later I found out I was pregnant again..Silly me went back to the same midwife..even though the thoughts of unassisted birth were even heavier in my mind. Well wouldnt you know my waters broke again, so my midwife came over and discovered my son was a footling breech. So she made a call to the bad small city hospital where the same overbearing OB who had delivered my daughter was on call. The O.B said to my midwife that I needed to come in an ambulance and have a c-section. I called my husband cause he was at work and he didn't want me to take the ambulance, but my midwife did not listen and called the ambulance any way. To make a long story short I had a c-section, I first thought is was the right decison but later I watched and read about successful vaginal breech births and wished I hadn't had that c-sec. Five months later I was expecting again but had a miscarriage and five months after that miscarriage I was expecting again..This time I did not go to a doctor or a midwife I had an unassisted pregnancy in which I weighed myself, did my own urinalylisis, took my blood pressure, listened to fetal heart tones with a fetoscope and measured fundal height all on my own. I had a great pregnancy. My waters broke in a big gush 2 days after my due date and contractions started. I was in labor for about 24 hours and I sadly realized that this baby was stuck and not moving down..So we made the painful drive to a local hospital, where the staff was very friendly and not judgemental and I had my third c-section because my little boy was stuck in a transverse position. I'm still glad I went with the unassisted pregnancy even though I ended up with a c-section. My baby was 8lbs 1oz and born hungry! He nursed really well. So this is my history of all my births I hope to explain in more detail why I am passionate about natural pregnancies and birth...uninterferred with.
