So, what occupies my thoughts now?

Well, babies of course!!! Once you get bit by the bug, you want a baby and your thoughts go to the cute things you're going to do and all of that. Since I am training to become a Lactation Consultant and I'm still working on my doula certification, babies have been on my mind for quite some time. :) I've also learned so many new and interesting things regarding birth and parenting choices, that I've come to some pretty strong conclusions and I'm very happy with the choices that my husband and I are making.

So what are those choices? Well first of all, I've read many studies on the use of midwives during pregnancy and birth, and with the U.S. having an over 30% c-section rate (in some areas even more!), I thought that using a midwife would help me to beat the odds. The midwives we decided to go with once I'm pregnant attend homebirths only. The practice has 4 CPMs (Certified Professional Midwives) all of which have collectively 40 years experience catching babies. Their c-section rate is 4.3% which is about what it should be for normal, low risk birthing women. We've decided on having a waterbirth which during my doula training I have seen many of. They're so peaceful and beautiful I want that experience for myself.

One may ask, "Is homebirth safe?". Well in short, yes it is. According to British Medical Journal studies using statistics from CPMs, homebirth is as safe if not more so than hospital birth. There are also wonderful Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) who do hospital, free standing birth center, and homebirths (depending on the area). They also have amazing statistics that rival any Obstetrician in the U.S. You can see the BMJ study at http://http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416?ehom. "What if something goes wrong?", is the second question asked. As trained professionals with State and National licenses, midwives are trained to see birth as a normal natural event and it is normal until proven otherwise. So midwives know what's normal, they see normal births and pregnancies all the time. Once they see something that is out of their scope of practice like for example gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, or pregnancy induced hypertentsion in pregnancy, they will transfer your care to an Obstetrician who is by the way the expert on abnormal, high risk pregnancy and birth. Unfortunately OBs are trained to see pregnancy and birth as a medical condition, a disease that is abnormal until proven otherwise. Midwives also have the training to see when things are not going normally during childbirth during which time they will transfer your care to that of her backup Obstetrician(unless she works in a state where the obstetricians are hostile to midwives) who will meet you at the hospital to help rectify the situation be it that you may need drugs because of exhaustion, or for a necessary c-section. So midwives will see that things are going wrong before they become a serious problem which is a misconception about the profession.

"What about the pain?", is another question that is asked. Well, I have no personal experience with this, but the way I see it is this way: My mother had all 6 of her babies naturally and her mother before that and before that until the first mother. My father's mother who is a strong Nigerian woman had her babies naturally and her mother, and her mother until the first woman. My body is not broken. If all my foremothers can birth babies naturally and with no complications then I can do the same. I'm not afraid of the pain. We as women need to take back that power that has been stripped away from us and know that we are strong and we can do this. Yes, it's difficult but the pain is there for a reason. I'm personally more afraid of the cascade of interventions than any labor pain.

"Who cleans up afterwards?" The midwives do! You have your baby, they clean up the mess, do the laundry and you and your baby snuggle up in bed together and nurse and fall asleep. That's it.

So that's just the beginning of my obsession with babies....BTW, the picture up top is that of my beautiful niece Sakinah at 6 weeks old.