Homebirth

Other people’s birth stories concentrate more on the actual birth, but what was more important to me was the decision making in preparation for the birth – that was a really exciting time for me.

When I first came to Germany, a year and a half ago, I was about a month pregnant and didn’t know what to do. I had no idea what the procedures were here regarding pregnancy and giving birth. I didn’t know where to start and to top it all my German left a lot to be desired. So I did what I thought was logical and made an appointment with the gynaecologist. The first one I phoned couldn’t give me an appointment till June and this was in April. I couldn’t wait that long, so I phoned another. When I was there he told me there was such thing as a “Hebammenliste” and said that I should pick one up on my way out. Wow! To be able to choose my own midwife! But that also made it more difficult. Which should I phone first? And would I have to repeat my story to 100 of them till I found one who had space on an antenatal course in time for my due date? I looked at the list and noticed that there were letters after every midwife’s name and a code at the bottom of the page to help understand these letters. I saw an H and looked to see what that was and boom the word “Hausgeburt” popped out at me! “Hmm”, I thought, “I wonder what that’s all about”. So I phoned Myriam and asked just what was a Hausgeburt and for more information on the topic. I wasn’t actually thinking about having one then, I was simply intrigued. So she came to visit me and I was thinking “Oh no, I hope this doesn’t tie me down to this, because I don’t know if I want one – I just want to know more about it, never having heard of it, that’s all”. So I was informed that a minority of people actually have their babies at home or in a Birth Centre – a more comfortable environment than a hospital, and that if the pregnancy is generally unproblematic, the childbirth is normally also problem-free.

I had already had a child in a hospital in Spain, where they had bascially told me to have an epidural and that I was stupid not to want it and where the gynaecologist had cleaned the neck of my uterus a week before the due date to induce the birth so that it would be less work for my body (the baby came that day). I hadn’t really known that there were other options as far as childbirth was concerned then. In fact there weren’t any other options there where I was in Spain – lying on a hospital bed as though I were ill and having midwives jump on my stomach to push my son out appeared to be the norm. The months went by and I was still not at all convinced about a homebirth (“What if anything goes wrong?”), so I went to visit a couple of hospitals and although they were much less hospital-like than the Spanish hospital - with ropes hanging from the ceiling and exercise balls and baths for water-births etc. there was still a hospital feeling there which wasn’t altogether agreeable to me. I went to see the birth centre as well and it seemed lovely by comparison, and it was only 3 minutes from the hospital if any complications were to arise. I then did the antenatal course there and became more and more convinced (my internet research helped me to make my decision too). Despite my German gynaecologist telling me that people had 10 or so children in the olden days so it didn’t really matter if they had them at home and lost them during childbirth, but nowadays people only have one or two so it’s safer to go to hospital “just in case”, and my Spanish gynaecologist telling me that so many hundreds of complications could arise, that she would go through stage 1 of the delivery at home but then would go to hospital, I trusted my midwife (Miriam) completely and believed that if there was the slightest sign of something going wrong she wouldn’t let me even try to have the baby at home. Oh, I’ve forgotten to mention that I also had my husband to try and convince! He came along to a couple of antenatal classes and left decidedly more open to a non-hospital birth than he was before! I didn’t actually definitively make up my mind until a month before the due date.

The actual birth was wonderful. My older son went to his bed at 8pm as usual and when he woke up (at 8 o’clock in the morning) he had a baby brother. He didn’t hear a sound or waken up or anything. I knew when I was going into labour (because I’d already been through it with the first child!) but I didn’t have to rush away anywhere. I just calmly phoned Myriam and set about mopping the floors! I started off in the bath tub, but then when I realised I couldn’t relax my head between contractions (because I had to hold my head up out of the water) I came out and in the end had the baby on the bathroom floor! But to be able to sleep in my own bed afterwards was sooooooooooo good! Then Miriam took great care of us for the following 8 weeks. It was a beautiful experience and one I would recommend and even repeat!

Kate

Andres wog bei seiner Geburt 3700g und war 52 cm groß