baby

baby still snuggled up inside me. 3 hours and 2 minutes left of it's due date...

so why am i planning on a home water birth again when there's a perfectly good hospital just down the road?

everytime i get asked that question i seem to give a different answer.

let me make a list to unclutter my brain.


- i think the body, mind and spirit are delicately interconnected and the body can't function well unless the mind and spirit are positive and healthy.
- there is less chance of infection for me or baby
- the water will help me move into different position more easily, which will allow me to listen to my body and do what it tells me more easily. the physical position of the mother is supposed to be really influential in how easily the baby can move through the canal.
- i like things being as natural as possibly and want to avoid the cascade of intervention which is so common in hospitals. (eg. lots of foetal monitoring leads to mother laying on her back for ages which leads to 'failure to progress' which leads to her being induced which leads to an epidural which leads to a c-section)
- i also believe that health is not just the absence of something going wrong, health is more about optimum functioning. hospitals seemed to be all about stopping things going wrong rather than actually promotion health.
- the water will help my skin and muscles soften and less likely to tear.
- the temptation of drugs will not be there. why is that important? i'm not exactly sure... i think i fear that drugs will stop me from fully experiencing this incredible event.
- this baby has somehow made me more aware of my connection with God than ever. And my awareness of my connection with God is possibly the most dearest thing to me. I imagine it would be much harder for me to feel connected to God birthing in a hospital than it will be for me to get lost in His arms at home.
- giving birth in a strange room in front of a bunch of strangers sounds really bizarre to me. to me it's really strange that the 'normal' place to birth would be in hospital.

hmmm... that helped me unclutter a bit. and can i add that i am open to zipping down to Joondalup hospital should the need arise, it's just not my first preference.

charlie