Monday, March 29, 2010

too much information

The internet is good and evil all at the same time. I love being able to find information that calms my fears, but most often, I find information that tells me something is very, terribly wrong. As a first time mother, it's much easier to believe the latter.
Case in point. Lately the baby has been twitching - the only way to explain is that it feels like a muscle spasm or seizure. Hadn't thought much of it before today but decided to "google" it. I found everything from it's normal development all the way to it is truly a seizure and my baby will have seizures when it is delivered. Great. With a doctor's appointment coming up tomorrow, I'm deciding to believe that all is well and it is normal.
Another struggle I've been having is the desire to have a natural childbirth experience (as long as Squirt is healthy and allows it). Problem is that our insurance company would not foot the bill (though it would likely be a much smaller bill). We are stuck with an OB in a hospital. With this being the case, I started to do more research on how to make this experience as ideal as possible. The final answer for us is to hire a doula. Check this out for information about a doula: http://www.dona.org/
My favorite information I read is this:

Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula's presence at birth tends to result in shorter labors with fewer complications:
-reduces negative feelings about one's childbirth experience
-reduces the need for pitocin (a labor-inducing drug), forceps or vacuum extraction and cesareans

-reduces the mother's request for pain medication and/or epidurals

We have meetings set up with two different women from the area who are doula's. I will let you know what we find out!

5 comments:

  1. I have an appointment tomorrow, too! I hope everything looks good for both of our little ones.

    I was thinking of asking you if you had considered a doula. I've heard such good things about them. Definitely keep us updated!

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  2. I met with a doula several times before Lily was born. I would definitely recommend one! We did not call our doula because I was only in labor 4 hours, but had I been in for longer, I would have.

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  3. I'm not sure who your OB is, but I have Mark Faustich at St. E's and both of my lbor/delivery experiences were "enjoyable." I did not have an epidural with either delivery. I'm curious to learn more about the role of a doula... hopefully we'll get together soon to talk about it!

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  4. Thanks for the comments ladies! We meet with our first doula tomorrow and we'll see how that goes!

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  5. very exciting! if i had to have a hospital birth, i'd definitely do it with a doula present... so happy for you! are you going to that big free "baby shower" coming up at the Building For Kids? last year, there were some doulas there to talk to. perhaps something to check out.

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