Going full term after being told we couldn't..

I decided to blog about our pregnancy experiences. We were talking about it last night and I think its important information, just in case someone out there is going through our situation.

Our first child was born in '95. We were the typical first-time parents. Went to the OB appointments, did all the testing (without asking), and so on. Our birth was managed very much like the first-time birth experiences you hear about.. IVs, internal monitoring, routine episiotomy (she was only 5lb13oz!). There was some question about due dates, we feel she was probably 36 weeks due to our very poor breastfeeding experience. We were told misinformation by the Ped, had no real-life support (lots of negatives tho! ugh!) and so on. We love our daughter to bits, but what a way to be born. Whew. I received no real useful information during pregnancy and the hospital just did things Their Way. (Btw, I'm not internal monitoring if necessary. A friend recently gave birth with some complications and it was necessary. But, in an everyday routine pregnancy? I think it was just the lazy way out for the staff). We feel that poor nutritional advice probably led to her being small and for the PROM (premature rupture of membranes -- aka water breaking early).

Our second child we had moved away. We saw a lay midwife at first, but then decided to move back east to be closer to family. I do believe we could have avoided a lot of heartache had we just stayed put and used the midwife there in CO! But, hindsight is 20/20 and not that useful. So we moved back to small-town rustbeltville *g* and found an OB. While he admitted he was horrified at the high c-section rate of the local hospital and OBs (seriously, it's outrageous, do we really believe so many women in that area are suffering from narrow pelvic bones? geez)... he still liked everyone to get an epidural for "just in case". Well, we had nubain with our last birth and knew we wanted to go drug free. After all, we had started out planning a homebirth!

During the pregnancy, again, I didn't receive a lot of info. I did get a lot of prescriptions for whatever the OB felt ailed me. If I had a stuffy nose he wrote a prescription, if I had a certain pain, he wrote a prescription. We simply didn't fill them. The one thing he did *NOT* do was actively treat for a case of bacterial vaginosis. At 32 weeks my water suddenly broke and we ended up transporting 1.5 hours away to the children's hospital. Thankfully we did live near my folks and they were able to help a lot with our 2yo and just be a great emotional support to us in the hospital. My Dad went daily to hold her and love on her.. which is a sweet story we still share. :) We do feel the infection led to the PROM. There is some valuable info out there regarding bacterial vaginosis and preemies. Many can have BV and not realize it. The upside? The children's hospital was natural birth friendly, even though I was stuck in the bed. We had our natural Bradley birth. (Birth was extremely short, even with labor being stopped with mag. sulfate to transport).

Soo.. third child.. we're now in a larger city and find a hospital that is natural-birth friendly. I find a practice that appears to be much more relaxed than the others.. and so on. Around 30 weeks I start going into labor. They say I'm around 2cm so must go on bedrest/meds and so on. (Later, near 35 weeks I'm told I was maybe 1cm). They also tell us we will *always* have preterm labor issues and need meds/bedrest. At 36 weeks our 3rd child is born, completely natural with a doula there for support.

Fourth child is another OB, regular care, again, born at 36 weeks tho we managed to avoid bedrest. We found some books with ideas on things to do to help prevent preterm labor.

However, the issue was really preterm labor as much as it seemed to be PROM. With each child my water broke early and then labor began. With our 4th labor didn't start so we ended up with pitocin.

With our fifth child I decided I wanted a doula again. We received a glowing recommendation from a friend and interviewed her. We clicked on many areas and she also went over our history. A suggestion of adding more zinc, Emergen-C, www.blueribbonbaby.org diet, and so on was recommended. We followed her suggestions and had our first full-term baby, born at 37w4days. (37 weeks is considered fullterm). Another natural birth.

Sooooo... here we are with our sixth child. Our doula is now a certified midwife so we decided on a homebirth. This was hard because our insurance covers none of it. But, we just felt this was the right choice for this pregnancy. I did basically the same routine as last time and added in fish oil. I had some low iron issues so used Floradix which worked FAST (and tastes horrible!). Along with diet we also do lifestyle changes.

And, tomorrow, I'll be 37 weeks -- FULL TERM.

I highly encourage moms who have been told they'll always go preterm to get some good nutritional information. For us it has made a huge difference. I know it sounds like the difference between 36 weeks and 37 weeks is small, but it is not. Many OBs will require antibiotics and lots of monitoring for a 36 wk birth, but nothing like that for 37. Also, the sucking reflex is developed during that 37th week making breastfeeding easier. Baby's liver is more mature which reduces jaundice, and baby has more fat helping their body temperature.

I am extremely grateful that we had a doula/midwife take the time to look over our history. Her very simple recommendations truly changed our lives, and the births for our babies. We feel that God is planning our family.. and we know that He led us to her.

Btw, there are some really interesting studies out there regarding fish oil and pregnancy. I also switched to New Chapter's Perfect Prenatals which have probiotics in them.

Now we get to officially *eagerly* anticipate the arrival of baby Elijah or Naomi!!