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Location. Location. Location. Where to Give Birth?

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I don’t recall the inspiration for this discussion, but I still think it would be an interesting discussion for us. Ironically, my wife told me that the movie “Babies” was available via OnDemand tonight. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it tracks four babies from around the world from birth to first steps. But don’t be misled. I’m not suggesting you give birth in Namibia.

My curiousity is a bit more simplistic. Where did you choose to give birth in your community? Was it a hospital? At home? Outdoors? In a taxi? Cell block D?

As I contemplated the question, I recalled the many discussions my wife and I had when it came to the birth of our son. Many of those discussions centered around the faith we had in Western medicine. For all of its advances and wonders, we weren’t enthralled with the wires, monitors, rules, and restrictions imposed by our local hospitals. And for most of the pregnancy (with the notable exception of our great OB/GYN, Dr. John King), Western medicine had nearly killed my wife and my unborn child. Multiple times.

Our analysis of various options led us to a compromise. We wanted to be as natural as possible, mostly for the benefit of our son. You’re only born once and we wanted his experience to be safe, awe inspiring, and loving. My wife had also become a skilled practicioner in the art of hypnobirthing so we needed to ensure a relaxing environment for her as well. In the end we chose to give birth in the safety of a hospital so long as they adhered to our requirements for peace and natural birth. As you may assume, it was no easy task. Hospital staff and I regularly butted heads as they refused to honor their previous promises, make unnecessary yet extremely profitable demands, and…this is not a joke…kick us out of the hospital -seven hours into labor- for refusing a c-section. (If you aren’t versed in the art of medical billing, c-sections reap much higher payouts for the doctors than vaginal births which is why the c-section rate in America is now approximately two-thirds of all births.)

Despite her 31 hours of labor, my wife was sleeping through most of it (even contractions) and had a very relaxing experience. I nearly threw a nurse. But our son was born healthy and we had the security of knowing that if something went wrong we had good medical care available.

But that’s my story. I’ve got cousins who have given birth at home in a pool of water surrounded by friends and family. I’ve got friends who demanded drugs, gave birth in hospitals hooked up to more machines than a car going for a smog test, and wouldn’t hesitate to do it that way again. And there are plenty of others who fall somewhere in the middle.

Please share your experience and why you made the choices you did. There are plenty of expectant fathers reading this who would love a few voices of experience.

The post Location. Location. Location. Where to Give Birth? appeared first on ProActiveDads.com.


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