I pick and choose who I tell about our home birth plan. My step-mother? Yes. My mother, no. My mother-in-law? Hard to decide. Probably, but I might wait until the week before my due date. Friends? Yes, for the most part, but not all. I haven't told many people about this blog, sort of for the same reasons. I'm sure that once the baby comes, this will be a haven for baby photos and not much more, but I like the idea of having the history here, so I can go back and look at how I physically felt at week 31 or week 15, and see how naive and optimistic I was for the future. I've told some of my coworkers, but I actively avoid telling others.
My reasons are varied, but for the most part I don't want to talk about the birth with those who either 1. have not given birth in the last 10 years, or 2. don't know me very well. People tend not to be particularly supportive of the home birth paradigm, and there are a lot of questions that are immediately asked. I don't feel like I have to justify my choice, and I am certainly not a resident genius about home birth. I know what feels right for me, but I don't purport to say that it's the best or the right way. There are tons of resources out there, though, like the Citizens for Midwifery, Childbirth Connection, and DONA. I can't say that I have ever done so much reading on one topic in such a short time - in the past 6 months of pregnancy, I have read so many books, articles and online resources that it honestly amazes me. My number 1 favorite book out there is still Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I could, I would give this book to every woman of childbearing age. I love this book. The end.
Recently, though, Dave and I have switched to baby care books and resources. We've got the Baby Book at home, and have found it useful so far. The library just informed me that the Happiest Baby on the Block has arrived on the holdshelf for me, and while that sounds ridiculous, I'm pretty excited to watch it. Our midwives have also learnt us What Babies Want, which we will hopefully get to this weekend. I feel like I'm full of pregnancy and birth information, and it's been fun to begin switching over to the baby stuff.
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I work with Childbirth Connection on their website, and normally when I see blog posts that link to them, I don't comment. But as a woman who has learned about home birth and non-medical ways of birthing (and I learned it all from working with them), I say way to go. It's an odd thing to talk about to people who haven't read the same material that you have, so I'm a supporter of the direction of your plan!
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