Doula Info

also look at www.dona.org

The child birth collective is awesome too

I birthed at home almost 16 years ago, and it was the most wonderful, safe and empowering experience!
Every bit of evidence supports the safety of homebirth. The mortality (death) rate for both mother and baby (very low) is essentially the same in both locations, but the complication rate is much higher in the hospital. The one mentioned by one of the posters, infection, is much higher in the hospital. You are immune (and thus your baby would be immune) to all of the germs you live with, unlike hospital germs, which kill.
According to the CDC "Nosocomial (hospital caused) bloodstream infections are a leading cause of death in the United States. " (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no2/wenzel.htm)
We need hospitals for the small number of women who encounter problems, and if birthing at home a problem is encountered, you go to the hospital just as if you had an accident in your car and needed medical services. But for healthy women and babies, home has been proven again and again to be a safe option. Countries with far better outcomes than ours (we currently rank 37th for maternal mortality and near that for infant mortality, so there are dozens who do better than we do) offer midwives and homebirth as an option.
It's great that you are researching your options early. I have many resources on my website at www.kimwildner.com You might want to check into HypnoBirthing(R) classes too. :-) www.hypnobirthing.com
K. Wildner
____@____.com
www.kimwildner.com

Hi Caroline. I have 3 little ones and the last one I had at home. It was the best experience of my life and my little girl has the temperment and personality to prove it. I don't plan to have any more children, but if I do I wouldn't do it any other way. The gal I used is Janet Schwab, CNM w/ To Each Her Own Women's Health Services, L.L.C.
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____@____.com
www.2eachherown.com
I would love to chat, so if you want send an e-mail to me at ____@____.com
Good Luck and congrats on finding love. J.

Caroline,
I did a homebirth with a midwife. I found great resources with the Childbirth Collective www.childbirthcollective.org and the web site www.minnesotabirthnetwork.com Both of these were helpful in researching midwives and doulas and also getting hooked up with other home birth families so I didn't feel crazy choosing to birth at home. It's great to plan ahead so you know your options.
S.

Just wanted to add another Right on, Caroline!

I think, (I hope, I pray) that in Sicko's wake, movies like Ricki Lake's "The Business of Being Born, " and "Pregnant in America" and PBS's "Born in the USA" will find a broader audience. Check out these links. Ina May Gaskin's books were totally instumental in my unmedicated childbirth, as were taking Bradley classes, which I'm now training to teach.

http://thebusinessofbeingborn.com
http://www.pregnantinamerica.com/
http://www.itvs.org/bornintheusa/index.html

Best of luck to you in your journey!

We just had a baby and we used two doulas that I would HIGHLY recommend for anyone who is expecting. They are caring and dependable, extremely knowledgeble about childbirth and pregnancy and post partum care. We never would have had such a great birth without them. If you want their contact info, email me.

Caroline,

Homebirth is a wonderful, beautiful, empowering, gentle way to bring life into the world. I highly recommend it!

We had a waterbirth, actually. It was so nice to be able to do what my body felt it needed without someone else telling me what I could or could not do. And then to go straight from the tub to our own bed, to not have to take my newborn son out into the January cold...

While I was pregnant, my midwife recommended reading Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth. You may also want to look at her first book: Spiritual Midwifery. I did not take any childbirth classes, but reading about pregnancy and labor really helped me to understand the process that my body would go through so that I wasn't afraid of how intense the feeling of birth is.

Best wishes!

I just had my first baby, and I would REALLY, REALLY recommend doing it in a hospital. I didn't have any pregnancy complications, but labor and delivery were very long and very difficult and I got an infection in my amniotic sac - something that is fairly common and doing it at home, you probably wouldn't know. I went to the Woodwinds Health Campus to the midwives there, and you can also use a doula. I loved my midwife and the staff was really great. I would really recommend going there, but I really encourage you to do it in a hospital.

HI Caroline

I know nurse midwife who is my yoga instructor. Let me know if you would like more info about her.

I know you obviously love the idea of having a child at home but honestly, I would never give birth to a child at home. I work in labor & delivery & I see lots of things that could go wrong that you or your Doula would have no control over that would need immediate intervention. I just believe it's very dangerous. Why not just have your Doula with you at the hospital? Why risk you & your baby's health to do it at home?

Good luck!

I have not birthed at home yet, but i plan to from now on. I think you should look for a midwife as well as a doula. There is a twin cities home birth "meet-up" group, Holistic Moms Network, and the childbirth collective that the previous poster mentioned. Being in a group of other homebirthing parents is a great way to get information and feel secure in your decisions. Mainstream people, especially the medical community, will fill you with half truths and bias to try and scare you into conforming to their ideals, and they can really wear you down if you do not have more open minded
support.
Feel free to contact me if you want specific contact info for doulas, midwives or parenting groups in the twin cities.
Good luck with your plans.