FYL 009: Delivering Your Baby With a Midwife vs Hospital

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When I had Julianne (my oldest) I had an extremely hard pregnancy. I was diagnosed with preeclampsia but for most of my pregnancy, it was undiagnosed. Literally, the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy was so easy. I didn’t struggle with morning sickness at all. Almost to the day after I hit 20 weeks, I started swelling. I thought the amount of swelling that I experienced was normal and I knew my mom struggled with swelling and she had three easy pregnancies, so I wasn’t too concerned. Little did I know that swelling that early on is something to be concerned with. My nightly routine after a long day at work was to elevate and ice my legs and feet. I had several tests done to figure out why I was having consistent swelling. I had ultrasounds done on my legs to see if I had blood clots and also did the tests to see if I had protein in my urine to figure out if it was preeclampsia. I gained 60 pounds with the pregnancy and lost 50 pounds just in the first week after delivering. Let me just say it was hard on my body. I was considered high risk so I had no option but to continue to see my OBGYN and deliver at the hospital. 

So, when I became a pregnancy with Madelyn, I knew I wanted to have a better experience. After speaking with several people about their experience with a Midwife, I knew I had to try it. Everyone told me how much they enjoyed their deliveries and it was just a more personal experience. You don’t have several nurses interrupting you, it is one-on-one attention from the Midwife and her doula, you go home just 2 hours after delivery and the possibility of giving birth in a homelike atmosphere. All of this was very attractive to me. I was putting my faith in God and allowing him to be in control, that is how I felt about making the decision to go with a Midwife. My husband wasn’t exactly onboard with this idea. He was very nervous because after all, I had a hard pregnancy and delivery with our oldest. Not being in a hospital if something was to go wrong sounded like a bad idea. I introduced him to the Midwife I had chosen (After I met with one or two others) and from then on, I felt like he was completely onboard with the idea.  

The delivery couldn’t have gone better in my eyes. I delivered her naturally within 1 ½ hour and everything just happened as it should. The best part of my experience was that we were able to bring Madelyn home after 2 hours and she got to surprise her big sister (Julianne had no idea that I was going to have the baby) by walking down the stairs of our own home and totally catching her off guard. It was so great. The recovery was much easier especially because I was able to do it all naturally as with Julianne I did get an epidural. My advice to anyone who is struggling to make this decision is to go with your instinct. No one can tell you what is best for you. Don’t be persuaded to make a decision you are not comfortable with because delivery is an experience you won’t have but a few times in your lifetime and it should be the best experience for you and your baby. To hear more from Shaina and me on our experiences, subscribe and listen to us on YouTube.