Looking for natural birth in WV/MD

Hi!

I had my first two babies in a birth center in Massachusetts--was very happy
with the experience and would gladly do it again, and was also planning on
investigating homebirth if we had gotten pregnant up north.

However, in the midst of thinking we'd never have any more kids, we moved to
WV to be near my husband's infirm (and not long for this world) parents.

The status of midwives in WV is "ambiguous"--they are not prosecuted but
except for CNMs they're not encouraged either. Homebirths are definitely not
covered by insurance and I'm also worried about transport (we're at least 50
miles from the nearest "good" hospital).

We are near both the MD and VA borders, and could go to either state, but
the closest birth center is in Baltimore, about 90 minutes away--and my last
labor was 90 minutes. There's no guarantee that I'd have that short a labor
again, but in both of my prior labors things got very intense very fast, and
I don't want to have that experience in a car. As it stands I have an
appointment with a midwife/OB practice about 45 minutes away, but I don't
like the feel of it at all--very busy, they only do births in a hospital,
they couldn't get me in before 8 weeks (and after three and a half years of
of infertility I want a lot more reassurance) and it seems like it's a
"med"wives practice rather than the comforting and very low-intervention
experience I would like.

For those who don't remember me, I'm well educated about birth and would no
doubt be an absolute nightmare patient in a hospital--I'd be fighting to
give birth upright, no continuous monitoring, no AROM, you name it. I just
don't know if I can handle the fight, but if I lost my birth experience I'd
be absolutely crushed.

The way I see it I have three options (well, four if you count a UC, but I'm
just not ready for that yet):
1) Deal with it, use the medwives, try to have a decent experience in the
hospital--this makes my stomach hurt thinking about it, but it IS a
possibility.
2) Rent a hotel room in Baltimore and hope that I give birth on or close to
my due date and can use that birth center. Possibly very expensive, would
have to find someone to take the older kids for several days to a week.
3) Go back up to Massachusetts a few weeks before my due date and stay with
family in order to use that birth center. Less expensive, but LONG
separation from my kids and husband, and possibility that he'd miss the
birth.

Nothing seems ideal, and it's all making me very apprehensive. Anyone have
any advice or possibilities I haven't thought of yet?

Joanna
Meriwether, 6
Honour, 4
EDD 6/4/04

Joanna Kimball wrote:


The way I see it I have three options (well, four if you count a UC, but I'm
just not ready for that yet):
1) Deal with it, use the medwives, try to have a decent experience in the
hospital--this makes my stomach hurt thinking about it, but it IS a
possibility.
2) Rent a hotel room in Baltimore and hope that I give birth on or close to
my due date and can use that birth center. Possibly very expensive, would
have to find someone to take the older kids for several days to a week.
3) Go back up to Massachusetts a few weeks before my due date and stay with
family in order to use that birth center. Less expensive, but LONG
separation from my kids and husband, and possibility that he'd miss the
birth.

Nothing seems ideal, and it's all making me very apprehensive. Anyone have
any advice or possibilities I haven't thought of yet?


Have you checked out the availability of local midwives
who will do homebirths? If you could manage the lack of
insurance, all you're left with is the distance issue and
perhaps you could find some clever way to deal with that.
How close are you to Alexandria, VA? I would recommend
the midwives I used there, if they're close enough. I
don't know where you are in WV, but I know people around
here who commute daily from WV (though I think they're
crazy ;-)

Nice to see you back!
Ericka

Joanna
Meriwether, 6
Honour, 4
EDD 6/4/04




ACK!! I was just thinking about you as I've just come back to MKP (we'll be
TTC #4 soon) and asked an herb question.

Congrats on #3!!!

Sophie
Charlotte, 5
Patrick, almost 4
Lewis, 20 months

"Joanna Kimball" thenospacekimballsatintergatedotcom wrote:

We're quite a ways from Alexandria. We're in the eastern panhandle, about
30 miles south (as the crow flies--the driving distance is more like 45
miles) of Hagerstown, MD and 40 miles north of Winchester, VA. I've
thought about trying to swing a homebirth, but money-wise it would be a
big problem and there's also the transport issue. With the closest decent
hospital being 45 minutes away (and the closest crappy hospital is 30), I
don't feel very comfortable about emergency transport issues

I have no idea how birth-friendly it is, but Winchester Medical is a great
hospital. My mom was there for her emergency brain surgery and outpatient
cancer treatment this last year. (I was actually snowed in there for
several days last February [at about 10 weeks pg] while my mom was in ICU.)

Good luck figuring out birth options.

--
z e l d a b e e @ p a n i x . c o m http://NewsReader.Com/

Joanna Kimball wrote:


We're quite a ways from Alexandria. We're in the eastern panhandle, about 30
miles south (as the crow flies--the driving distance is more like 45 miles)
of Hagerstown, MD and 40 miles north of Winchester, VA. I've thought about
trying to swing a homebirth, but money-wise it would be a big problem and
there's also the transport issue. With the closest decent hospital being 45
minutes away (and the closest crappy hospital is 30), I don't feel very
comfortable about emergency transport issues. Getting closer to the hospital
isn't really an option (unless I give birth in my office, which is in
Hagerstown). Selfishly, I also just don't feel good about a homebirth in
this house. We've got two kids, two cats, and three Great Danes in a
1500-sq-ft house--it would be an almost impossible task for me to carve out
a clean and quiet nest for myself, and trying to do so alone would put a
huge strain on me at the end of the pregnancy. One of the things I loved so
much about using a birth center is that it was like walking into a hotel--I
didn't have to clean up beforehand and I didn't have to do a thing
afterward.


With any decent midwives, you shouldn't have to do a
thing afterwards and the mess is negligible. Also, costs can
be quite reasonable with direct entry midwives (in 1997 we paid
only $1800 for everything). Of course, none of that solves
the distance from the hospital option, but on the other hand
with fast labors you might actually be better off on balance
by having someone local come to you rather than trying to
rush yourself to the hospital in time! And you can mitigate
some risk by being more conservative. I.e., if the hospital
were very nearby, maybe you'd take a wait and see approach
with some situations, but with the hospital farther away
maybe you transport instead--and at least you'd have a
midwife along for the ride to the hospital! And I think
perhaps you overestimate what is necessary in terms of getting
a house ready. Ordinary cleanliness is fine and you don't need
a lot of room. I would just encourage you to talk to a local
homebirth midwife or two just to open the option. You might
not take it, but options are nice to have. Also, you might
luck out and find a homebirth midwife who lives nearer the
hospital who might open her home to you while you're in
labor. Then it would be sort of like a birthing center
birth without having to travel too far! I know some midwives
who would do that, so I don't think it's *that* outrageous
a notion.
That said, I can certainly understand why you feel
homebirth is less than an ideal option for you and why you'd
rather do something different. I just figure that since you
don't have *any* options that are ideal, you might as well
investigate all the less-than-ideal options in case one of
them sits better with you than you previously thought ;-)
The appealing thing about the homebirth is that aside from
finding someone who could be with your older children during
the labor, it's the options that requires the least in
terms of outside support.
If you elect the go-to-a-hotel-near-term, I would
put BirthCare in Alexandria on your list of possibilities
for birthing centers you could do that with. You wouldn't
have any family or friends near Alexandria (or the other
birthing center you mentioned) that you could stay with
near term, would you?
I do think if you can bring in family to be with
you near the end for support, that would be lovely. Extra
hands always help. Well, okay, *supportive* extra hands
always help ;-)


Good luck,

Ericka

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
With any decent midwives, you shouldn't have to do a
thing afterwards and the mess is negligible. Also, costs can
be quite reasonable with direct entry midwives (in 1997 we paid
only $1800 for everything). Of course, none of that solves
the distance from the hospital option, but on the other hand
with fast labors you might actually be better off on balance
by having someone local come to you rather than trying to
rush yourself to the hospital in time! (snip) You wouldn't
have any family or friends near Alexandria (or the other
birthing center you mentioned) that you could stay with
near term, would you?
I do think if you can bring in family to be with
you near the end for support, that would be lovely. Extra
hands always help. Well, okay, *supportive* extra hands
always help ;-)


Thanks again, Ericka (and the others who replied to this thread)--

Yes, I've got lots to think about. I'll be a busy bee for the next few weeks
figuring out options--after staying up half the night thinking about it I'm
leaning towards going with the close and not-so-fuzzy practice for a little
while just to get bloodwork and hopefully a dating u/s done, and then
switching to a further practice. I could theoretically make the Baltimore
birth center for monthly visits, since they're about 45 minutes from where I
work, and then can decide whether I want to put the effort into giving birth
there, in Alexandria, or whether I should be looking into homebirth. My
husband is also actively jobhunting now (to switch--thankfully he's still
employed), so our insurance is likely to change midway through, which will
be another complication. Ah, the joys of pregnancy in a strange area!


--
Joanna
Meriwether, 6
Honour, 4
EDD 5/4/04

Hi Joanna...I'm not pregnant or even ttc...I'm just a lurker who likes
reading birth stories! LOL Anyway, just wanted to say hi, since I live in
Martinsburg and you sound like you're pretty close to me...I am assuming
that the "crappy hospital" you're talking about is City Hospital? LOL I know
the feeling...I live 5 minutes away from it and STILL go to Winchester
Medical when anyone in my family gets sick!
Nancy
"Joanna Kimball" thenospacekimballsatintergatedotcom wrote in message
news:3f4fc929_3@newsfeed...
Hi!

I had my first two babies in a birth center in Massachusetts--was very
happy
with the experience and would gladly do it again, and was also planning on
investigating homebirth if we had gotten pregnant up north.

However, in the midst of thinking we'd never have any more kids, we moved
to
WV to be near my husband's infirm (and not long for this world) parents.

The status of midwives in WV is "ambiguous"--they are not prosecuted but
except for CNMs they're not encouraged either. Homebirths are definitely
not
covered by insurance and I'm also worried about transport (we're at least
50
miles from the nearest "good" hospital).

We are near both the MD and VA borders, and could go to either state, but
the closest birth center is in Baltimore, about 90 minutes away--and my
last
labor was 90 minutes. There's no guarantee that I'd have that short a
labor
again, but in both of my prior labors things got very intense very fast,
and
I don't want to have that experience in a car. As it stands I have an
appointment with a midwife/OB practice about 45 minutes away, but I don't
like the feel of it at all--very busy, they only do births in a hospital,
they couldn't get me in before 8 weeks (and after three and a half years
of
of infertility I want a lot more reassurance) and it seems like it's a
"med"wives practice rather than the comforting and very low-intervention
experience I would like.

For those who don't remember me, I'm well educated about birth and would
no
doubt be an absolute nightmare patient in a hospital--I'd be fighting to
give birth upright, no continuous monitoring, no AROM, you name it. I just
don't know if I can handle the fight, but if I lost my birth experience
I'd
be absolutely crushed.

The way I see it I have three options (well, four if you count a UC, but
I'm
just not ready for that yet):
1) Deal with it, use the medwives, try to have a decent experience in the
hospital--this makes my stomach hurt thinking about it, but it IS a
possibility.
2) Rent a hotel room in Baltimore and hope that I give birth on or close
to
my due date and can use that birth center. Possibly very expensive, would
have to find someone to take the older kids for several days to a week.
3) Go back up to Massachusetts a few weeks before my due date and stay
with
family in order to use that birth center. Less expensive, but LONG
separation from my kids and husband, and possibility that he'd miss the
birth.

Nothing seems ideal, and it's all making me very apprehensive. Anyone have
any advice or possibilities I haven't thought of yet?

Joanna
Meriwether, 6
Honour, 4
EDD 6/4/04

Joanna Kimball wrote:
Hi!

I had my first two babies in a birth center in Massachusetts--was very happy
with the experience and would gladly do it again, and was also planning on
investigating homebirth if we had gotten pregnant up north.

We are near both the MD and VA borders, and could go to either state, but
the closest birth center is in Baltimore, about 90 minutes away--and my last
labor was 90 minutes.

If Ericka or Sarajoyo has responded to this thread yet, I believe they
both see the same group of midwives, who will do homebirth or
freestanding birth center in MD. I'm hopelessly behind in the
newsgroup, so if this is old news, forgive me; otherwise, an email to
either of them may give you some contacts.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 17 months

"Mary" wrote in message
...

If Ericka or Sarajoyo has responded to this thread yet, I believe they
both see the same group of midwives, who will do homebirth or
freestanding birth center in MD. I'm hopelessly behind in the
newsgroup, so if this is old news, forgive me; otherwise, an email to
either of them may give you some contacts.

Thanks, Mary--yes, I've talked to both. They recommended a practice in
Alexandria, VA, which DOES sound wonderful but is way, way far to drive
(they do homebirths within a certain radius of DC, and we're out of that
radius). The "closest" birth center to us is Baltimore, 90 minutes from our
house but "only" 45 minutes from my work. My super-great husband and I
talked it over tonight, and he wants me to dump the practice nearer to me
and just hoof it to Baltimore. He said, "I would rather have the baby in a
parking lot than in a hospital!" So as it stands I'm going to try to get in
touch with them and see if we can work out appointment times and some sort
of a rough plan. If Baltimore absolutely won't work I'll try Alexandria;
maybe we can work out a meeting place (a midwife's home or something) that
is closer than all the way to the city.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really want to be seen *soon* and
hopefully get some serial HCGs--I know intellectually that there's no
benefit to early visits as long as I'm taking my prenatals, but I've been
trying and killing myself for three years of infertility, and I just want to
have somebody say, yup, you're really pregnant, everything looks good, so I
can stop checking toilet paper sixteen times a day. The practice near me
can't get me in for another four weeks and were stonefaced to my pleas, so
I'm hoping Baltimore will be a little more sympathetic.

Thanks again,

--
Joanna
Meriwether, 6
Honour, 4
EDD 5/4/04

Joanna Kimball wrote:

radius). The "closest" birth center to us is Baltimore, 90 minutes from our
house but "only" 45 minutes from my work. My super-great husband and I
talked it over tonight, and he wants me to dump the practice nearer to me
and just hoof it to Baltimore. He said, "I would rather have the baby in a
parking lot than in a hospital!"

90 minutes, yikes. We were 45 minutes from ours, which was a big
decision to make, but it was a first birth so the midwives didn't think
it was any big deal at all. We had planned to go in at the very first
signs of labor, and just stay in a hotel in the area if it looked unsure
-- we scoped out some of the little inns and motels and so forth. It
didn't end up being necessary (long labor, thanks Sproutkin!), but
that's something you might want to consider. Still, that's a long car
ride. I hope they can work something out with a homebirth or a
midwife's house. Good luck.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 17 months