Going Au Natural

Living in the Northwest for the past 8 years has brought about many changes in my life. Not just geographically speaking, because yes, it's VERY different from where I grew up (Palo Alto, CA) and where I went to college (Tucson, AZ - GO WILDCATS!). It's greener (both color-wise and in its eco-mindedness), it's cleaner, the people are friendlier, the skin is paler, and it's way more casual than I ever was used to. It's also a very natural and granola type place. Vegans thrive here, let's just say that..... While I'm far from even being a vegetarian, it seems that the natural-leaning tendencies have rubbed off on me in my time here.

In my first pregnancy, I was absolutely terrified. Of everything. Reading the childbirth books would bring on panic attacks and the one and only childbirth class I attended left me shell-shocked and hyperventilating. Labor had to be induced (pitocin is evil, let me tell you), I had an epidural (which was done well, so I could get through the pitocin labor), I pushed for an hour and a half  and Mister had to be forcibly extracted with a vacuum. The whole process took 8 hours 45 minutes. Lovely imagery, I know.

The second time around, all I knew was that I wanted nothing to do with pitocin. I wanted to see how far I could go on my own since I knew that it was so much more intense with pitocin. I told the nurses this, and also told her that I wanted to be checked often so I would know when the point of no return was. I wanted the option to have an epidural if I was feeling like I couldn't handle it. By the time I was begging for the epidural she checked me and told me that I was fully dilated and that it was too late. "Oops", she said (and yes, I wanted to throttle her). Fortunately, in my first nod to NW naturalness (is that even a word?) I had a fantastic doula (Jami, who also happens to be one of my favorite peope on earth) there to talk me through it and cater to my needs, since the nurses were so obviously off in their own worlds. Don't even get me started on them. So having no other choice, Pumpkin was born naturally. His process took only 3 hours 45 minutes and 2 half-hearted pushes (he was really excited to come out).

Now this time around is where the NW granola stuff has really started rubbing off. This time, knowing that I have done it naturally before, even if by accident, I want to do it that way intentionally this time. I want to go into this birth knowing that I can do it and hopefully bear it a little more gracefully than I did last time. I had great doctors with both of my boys and since my doctor when I was pregnant with Pumpkin doesn't take my new insurance, I decided to go in an even more earthy direction. I decided to go with a small midwifery clinic for this pregnancy. I actually really love the idea of having a baby in a birthing center (they have a few very nice ones around here) and I'm even toying with the idea of a waterbirth. Trust me when I say that I NEVER thought that would come out of my mouth (or keyboard, whatever). But the clinic of midwives I decided on delivers at the hospital so that if anything doesn't go according to plan I can either get an epidural or have a c-section in case of emergency. And Jami will be by my side as my doula once again. Yes, it's nice to have Scott there and I wouldn't have it any other way, but for some reason it's hard for me to accept coaching from him when he's never had a baby before. I tend to think "What the heck do you know?!" when he's telling me things in that situation.

So that's my plan. I plan to go as natural as possible. I know I can do it because I've done it before and I think that knowledge will help me this time around.