Birth Options

By kate on July 17th, 2005

Steve and I are in the process of researching birth options. We both decided right away that a home birth wasn’t really our thing. It sounds messy, and personally, I think I’d rather go to a special place to give birth, rather than in my regular old house. While I love my house, and feel very comfortable there, I don’t know if I want to have the birth experience here. I can’t really explain why.

So, now we’re deciding between a hospital birthing center and a stand-alone birthing center, as well as between an OB and a midwife. Right now, we’re leaning toward the latter in both cases. We’ll be touring a few birth centers (both kinds), to get a feel for them. We like the idea of a midwife and a birthing center (I’m expecting to be low-risk), but we’re worried that they might be too woo-woo. We are trying to maintain a sense of wonder and magic while at the same time keeping a healthy sense of cynicism, humor, and practicality. It seems like some of the more natural-y places are too far into the mysticism and magic.

We’d also like a place that isn’t so woman-focused that Steve is lost in all the empowerment. I want him to be as involved as humanly possible.