You know that feeling when you turn around and realize that a runaway train missed you by a hair? You didn't even know you were in danger until it was over. You are safe on the sidewalk and your whole family is safe and everything is okay...so you turn around and start to sob and shake and all you can imagine is what would have happened "if."
I feel that way right now. I'm shaking and sobbing and can't believe I never even knew the runaway train was heading my way. My sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful little baby boy today--8lbs, 3oz--and both are doing very well. But the part that caught me off guard is that she birthed him at home. Don't get me wrong, I am not against home.birthing necessarily...but the fact of the matter is that the life I live puts me in the unique perspective of knowing far more people who have had home.births go tragically wrong than people who have gotten healthy, live babies this way. I know, I know, I'm such a downer and a party pooper and everything else--and you're right. But the bottom line is that as badly as I wish people could understand my perspective on this, I would never, never, ever wish this perspective on any other human being--least of all my sister-in-law and my handsome new nephew.
Welcome to the world, Jack Peter Doyle, I'm so, SO happy that you arrived safely. Thank you!
(And just for the record, I'm not "for" hospital births for low-risk women. I think the US needs a substantial improvement in its support of and for birthing centers close to or attached to hospitals--just in case--but that still allow women the freedom of laboring how they want, with or without interventions, etc. So please don't think I'm all about making birth a medical event.)
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