Why a Home Birth?!?

This is pretty long but I would love for you to read on...several people have asked about Kevin and I deciding to have our baby at home. So I'll post it here for time's sake. When we got married we had already talked about home birth vs hospital. We decided that we would have the first baby in the hospital since it would be the first and we wouldn't really know what to expect. However when we got pregant earlier this year the conversation came up and we decided we wanted to look into home birth with this baby too. So we began researching the pros and cons to both. We also feel God put another couple in our lives at just the right time who were planning to have their second baby at home in the spring. We quickly decided we wanted our baby to be born at home. And thus began a rather unconventional pregnancy. Our friends recommended a doctor and midwife to us and I immediately called. We saw Dr. Dott at 7 weeks and talked to him for a long time about us having a home birth. As a medical advisor he definitely stated the risks of doing such but also was completely ok with us planning for that if I stayed low risk the entire pregnancy. He then recommended a midwife that he has worked indirectly with and said he would follow my prenatal care if we used her. So I called her and we started our prenatal care with her at the beginning of the second trimester. We saw Debbie the most but I would go to Dr. Dott here and there so he would know things were still progressing well. It was amazing for me to see the different even in the prenatal visits with Debbie and Dr. Dott. Don't get me wrong...I loved Dr. Dott. He was so open to our decisions and encouraging that things will be fine. But to go to the office I felt like another number. At Debbie's I felt like I was a something important and that my baby was the best thing in the world.
The pregnancy went extremely well. I stayed low risk and my only complaints were those that are perfectly normal for pregnancy. At 37 weeks I had to have our house ready to go for the birth. Debbie and her two apprentices, Christie and Tia, came to the house and checked everything out. We were officially ready at that point.
And now that we have had the birth at home I can honestly say I would never do it any other way. There were plenty of skeptics that I talked to and told our reasons. Working in the NICU I was definitely given plenty of "Are you crazy?" looks. It was like people thought I should know better. My outlook though was I know too much. I have seen births in the hospital and that was not what I wanted for my baby. Not to say hospitals are bad or to have a baby in the hospital is bad. Every person has different priorities. Kevin and I wanted very certain things with our birth. We wanted our baby to come into the world in a very dim, warm room. We wanted to have the freedom for me to move around and do whatever I wanted during the labor. We wanted the baby to be born into my arms and not leave until I was ready. We didn't want the cord to be cut until it was done pulsating. And the list goes on. Sure I know several of those can be accomplished in the hospital but there is an urgency there to assess the baby on the warmer, clean the baby, etc. Not to get too graphic but our birth went exactly how I wanted it to. Our midwife was planning to let me "catch" the baby but Ayda came a little too fast so she caught her and immediately handed her to me. I also didn't have to have her on my back with my legs up and people screaming push at me. Once she was in my arms Christie checked her heart rate real quick and then left us alone. Ayda came out screaming so we knew the lungs were fine. I then moved to the bed and waited for the cord to stop pulsating. Once it did, Kevin let my mom cut the cord. Then I was able to let Ayda go straight to the breast which she did great. I was with my baby skin to skin for about an hour before they even suggested doing an exam. They were in no hurry since she was bright red/pink, breathing fine, and eating. Kevin was able to do skin to skin as well for a little while until the exam. Then I got up and took a quick shower and Christie helped Kevin get Ayda dressed and when I got back to bed she came straight back to me. And from there we were left to rest as a family. The three of us slept for about an hour but were alone for three. No one checking me, no one coming to ask questions. It was so peaceful. And since it has been wonderful to be home as I recover and Ayda gets used to the world. Breastfeeding is going so wonderful and we got a great night of sleep last night.
I know about complications that can occur but I felt the whole pregnancy and labor that Debbie had so much experience she was watching for everything. I never once worried about what if something goes wrong. We were truly blessed to have a wonderful labor (though extremely painful...I won't deny that) and delivery. So to sum it all up, the whole experience was driven by Kevin and me, not the doctors and nurses. We made decisions as we felt were needed and what was best for me and our baby at that time. We let it be a truly natural process instead of a medical procedure!
Sorry this is so long but in order to fully explain the journey we just took I can't leave out these details. I will gladly tell more as I chat with you but I thought I would put this up to share our experience. I will never forget the moment my precious daughter was born into our room with candles lit and soft music playing. The song playing when she was born was "A Household of Faith" sung by my music minister at the church I grew up in. And as we got situated in bed "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong came on. God was truly in that room as we were introduced to our baby. I would not trade that for anything, especially the fear of "what if" something goes wrong. Our family was well taken care of and I am so thankful!
Those of you who were praying for us we greatly appreciate every one lifted up. The prayers were certainly answered!!!