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October 10, 2003
Well,lets see........ When I left off last,it was 1977,I was living in Peterborough NH (the Our Town town!) and I had :( miscarried my 1st pregnancy. After the misc. nothing seemed to fit into place anymore. NOW I know how hormones can affect a woman so much during this time!Boy could I have used a place like iparenting back then. Sadly,I had no clue about what was going on. We weren't back in school, we didnt have jobs that we loved,particularly,I had to suffer a miscarriage w/o the support of family & friends & I WANTED MY MOMMY!!!!!! We decided to return to FL to kind of regroup & rethink our plans. Charles mom had an empty condo at the time and we stayed there and Charles started a vocational course in some kind of building skills. I really wanted to go to nursing school and started to look into that a bit more. after the misc. & D&C,I had a normal cycle in May and then none in June. I knew I was pregnant again,I just knew it. I went to a local clinic staffed by Family Practice residents and the test was POSITIVE!Insert BFP feelings in here for just a moment! I was fortunate enough to be assigned to a young resident from California,whose brother was an OB/GYN in N.CA and who actually did homebirths and worked with midwives!At the time,I had no idea what a gem this guy was!Right away,he began talking to me about his brother & how it would be helpful if I could see a midwife during my pregnancy or have one attend my delivery. The patients at this practice delivered their babies at Jackson memorial Hospital in Miami.Not a place,at the time,where you could expect much TLC during childbirth! I needed to put nursing school on the back burner again but it was suggested I take an allied health Nurse Tech. course in the meantime, which was WONDERFUL advice and I would recommend anyone going into medical training of any kind take such a course beforehand. It gets you comfortable with/familiar with so many basic aspects of hospitals and patient care.I had a much easier time when I did eventually do nurses training than the other students in my class that did not have that background. I loved the class which I attended in the evenings learning basic human anatomy & physiology and how to take blood pressures and make hospital beds and in the mornings,I took care of an elderly woman in her home.We were required to get a certain number of handson hospital hours before we could get certified and because of my pregnancy,I couldnt do those hours in places where I could be exposed to illness or would have to move heavy patients and that kind of thing,so they came up with some unusual & interesting ways for me to get my hours in.And it was wonderful for me because I could toss my itchy Polyester white uniform (it was the polyester era!)in a locker and don the most comfortable cotton green scrub dress.I spent time in the Central Supply area(which I loved!)and being onduty in the Morgue (fortunately noone checked in during my time spent there!)which was also the hospitals pathology section and I could basically read or look at the different parts in labeled jars.During this time, a good friend of mine from high school gave birth in the same hospital where I was doing my med tech training and I was able to go see her before & sometimes during classes! She seemed bewildered & shell-shocked - couldnt wait to go home- and didnt seem to want to talk a whole lot about her childbirth experience.The only other experience I had had with childbirth was when I was in highschool and babysat a lot for a group of young mothers in my neighborhood.None of them seemed to really expect a good experience,it was just something to endure and get through.Nobody took classes or read books as far as I could see. All of this, along with the ongoing positive feedback I was getting from my dr. about more informed & supported childbirth made me start thinking about the semester I spent in KY taking college classes(before we got married),when some people,along with Ina May,came from the Farm and shared about their intentional community and midwifery services.They spoke of childbirth being wonderful,holy experiences,something that was looked forward to,not dreaded or endured. We had actually gone there for a visit one weekend,just for fun,while we were still in that area. Now this was pre-ultrasound days and because of the misc. in April and when my pregnancy test was positive,even tho I felt that I had had a normal cycle in May,there was some question about my due date.I originally thought that I was due sometime around March 17th,but the dr. was saying Feb 28th. I was to be finished with my Med tech stuff at the end of November and Charles was working an OPS job that would be easy to leave.I began to have some serious thoughts about going to the Farm to have our baby!Now remember,this is the late 70's and this was NOT California! I didnt know anyone who had had an out of hospital birth.Not one person! When I began to talk to my family about this ,they were horrified! When I would tell them the positive things that my dr. had to say about midwives and homebirth they wondered:Why is he telling you these things? What kind of a dr. can he be? Sometime in December,I wrote a letter to the Farm midwives ,telling them about myself and asking if I could have my baby there.They wrote back and said yes and that they really like people to be there at least a month before their EDD but longer if possible.My dear mil approached us and said that she would pay for the delivery so that we could go to a "nicer hospital". No,thankyou,our decision has been made.We are going to Tennessee to have our baby on the Farm!!! More next time,be blessed until then!Catherine
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