Homebirth Baby Reunion

One little, two little, three little babies...

Today was the reunion for all the families in our Homebirth prep class taught by the incomparable Jane Austin. It was so wonderful to come full circle with the 13 other families in our group. My husband made a good point months ago when we were all nervous and expectant parents-to-be; He said "You know essentially we're all strangers, coming from such different backgrounds, but we're in the midst of one of the most important phases of our lives together...there's something uniquely special in that."

We are all of different socio-cultural, ethnic, and even sexually-oriented backgrounds (hey, this is San Francisco!), but there was such a special connection from the get-go of our 6-week course. Maybe, even more so since we were all homebirthers. The percent of families deciding to birth their babies at home in the United States is less than 1%, so most of us found it especially therapeutic to be a room with 28 other adults who didn't think we were "crazy/brave/reckless/etc" to want to birth our babies at home.

Granted my husband and I didn't go the midwifery route like everyone else in our class, I have such a profound respect for the training and work of these exceptional practitioners. I don't think most know just how much schooling (both in practicum and in university) a Certified Nurse Midwife undergoes and just how much they are equipped to handle. In our group there were 10 pound babies!, 89-hour labors, a need for pitocin, catheters, going in and yes! stripping out a placenta that would not detach...that's just the tip of the iceberg of the work these amazing women do. However, they are also well-trained to make the call when and if it's time to transfer to a hospital. Since they are self-employed and their livelihood could potentially be on the line, this is not something they take lightly. Ever. Several midwives in our group moved their mamas to the hospital to birth their babies. And with much gratitude, these mamas birthed their healthy babies in the L&D ward. No regrets!*

Throughout my pregnancy I was under the care of a traditional OB, one voted year after year by other doctors as one of the very best in the entire country. Because of my exceptional health and pregnancy stats, she even said "If anyone is suited for a home birth, it is you". Also respectful of the midwifery profession, my OB sang the most praise to Maria Iorillo, LM, CNM. Maria has delivered over 1, 000 babies over the course of her career; several of those babies are pictured above. One of Maria's sayings that a mother shared with us is:

"It's not home birth at any cost;
 it's home birth when home birth is safe."

I love that and I find the sentiment so important to share, because I think there is a broad misconception that families choose home birth at any and all costs. This is neither true of the parents or of quality midwives. In Jane's class, we talked about how unpredictable birth can be and that despite all of us having specific visions of how we wanted to birth, as in most of life, we all had to be willing to go with the flow. And truth be told, none of us had "perfect" dream births, but we had our births and wow! the triumph in that...

*Even if you don't birth at home, the benefits of planning for a home birth and working with a Midwife are too numerous to even begin mentioning here. One however, that stands out above all else is the Postpartum care. During this incredibly hormonal and vulnerable time period a midwife will come to your home and check on you and baby 1 day after, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, and thereon for 6 weeks. Traditional medicine? You leave the hospital and your on your own with a short OB follow-up at 6 weeks.