Hello J.,
Just a few thoughts in response to your questions.
I am back to work full time and use two different pumps...one that stays at home and one that runs on a battery that I carry everywhere else with me. By far the better one is the Medela Pump In Style that I use when I am at home. When I am at work I use the Even Flow Comfort Select. It runs both on AC and on AA batteries so it works for me because we do a lot of running around and camping in my family. If you go on to Medela's website they actually have a little quiz that they have you take in order to assess what type of pump might work best for you, so you might look into taking that.
As far as natural childbirth goes, my husband and I chose to birth at the BirthCenter at St. Mary's with our midwife. It is a low intervention birth place right down the hallway from the regular Women, Infants, and Children unit that allows for both the feel of home with the knowledge that should there have been an emergency help was literally a few feet away. I went through my total labor at home and arrived at the hospital ready to push. Our son was born 1 1/2 hours later, and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had...to realize what your body can do. By the time he was ready to arrive in the world all I wanted was to push. The only desire I had for pain meds was when I was at the end of labor (transition) at my house -- so either way that wasn't going to happen. I bought a book about hypnobirthing which helps with breathing and read it on my own at home.
I am a pastor as well and one of my parishoners is a doula. She loves her work as a doula and says that she helps people in whatever way she sees necessary -- sometimes that means holding hands or rubbing backs, and sometimes that means coaching a partner through birth in order to help a birthing mom in the best way possible. We had our childbirth classes through Birth Partners which is in Naugatuck, and they have both classes specifically geared toward natural childbirth as well as doulas & lactation consultants who are very available to answer questions, etc.
No matter what happens on your big day, I wish you the very best!
Blessings,
J.