What happened to me was by far NOT the worst thing that could happen. Of course the worst thing would be the death of a child. This was not even in the realm of that.
My neighbor, a very nice man named Ed, saw me the other day as C and I were unloading the car of purchases and he said, "Man, you're carrying low! Are you having twins?!" I guffawed..."Uh, no!" I answered, not hiding my emotions...which is weird. I swear, I have no filter anymore. It's bad, but you know, I feel more honest these days than ever before.
It didn't phase him a bit. He just went on..."Oh, I was going to say, Kevin would have to get busy on two rooms!" Then we laughed. In my mind, I decided maybe he had the wives' tales mixed up...maybe he thought carrying low meant you were having twins. He never said, "Man you're huge! Are you having twins?"
I might have just smacked him in his little head with the bags I was carrying. ;-)
Kidding...sort of.
Kidding...sort of.
35 Weeks...the Low Down: from www.i-am-pregnant.com
Your baby now weighs over 5.5 pounds and its crown-to-rump length is approximately 13.2 inches. Your baby's total length is around 20.25 inches at this point. Your uterus is now 6 inches from the bellybutton and the average weight gain is approximately 24 to 29 pounds.
Most pregnant women begin to feel cramped and heavy around this time and often become tired of being pregnant. Some women feel like they do not have to room to breathe or eat. You should eat small, but frequent, meals and rest as often as you can throughout the day. Your cervix will begin to dilate and efface within the next few weeks to make room for your baby's head to emerge from the birth canal. Your cervix needs to be 10 cm dilated in order to deliver your baby.
This week of your pregnancy your baby's fingernails will have definitely reached the tips of his fingers. When your baby is born, his nails may look long and pointy. Your baby is less likely to scratch himself at this point because of the lack of room in the uterus. Fat deposition will still continue and your baby is getting chubbier and rounder. Your baby's shoulders are plump at this point.
The baby begins to develop its own immune system.
Most pregnant women begin to feel cramped and heavy around this time and often become tired of being pregnant. Some women feel like they do not have to room to breathe or eat. You should eat small, but frequent, meals and rest as often as you can throughout the day. Your cervix will begin to dilate and efface within the next few weeks to make room for your baby's head to emerge from the birth canal. Your cervix needs to be 10 cm dilated in order to deliver your baby. This week of your pregnancy your baby's fingernails will have definitely reached the tips of his fingers. When your baby is born, his nails may look long and pointy. Your baby is less likely to scratch himself at this point because of the lack of room in the uterus. Fat deposition will still continue and your baby is getting chubbier and rounder. Your baby's shoulders are plump at this point.
The baby begins to develop its own immune system.
This picture certainly makes sense to me, considering all the movement I've been feeling! Yesterday she was super active! It was crazy. She was active for a solid 2.5 hours last night before I went to bed. I love feeling her move though. It's amazing. She's amazing...Gosh I love her so.
On a side note:
I've just subscribed to the blog, The SkepticalOB...she is very anti-home birth (which I am definitely not). I am just curious to hear her side...the other side. The side that considers birth to be a medical situation rather than a natural situation. The way I see it...had it not been for home births of the past, none of us would exist. If interested yourself, check it out at:
http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/
What is your take on home births? Are they safe? Are they a "selfish" decision on the part of the mother? Do you think mothers who choose to birth at home are irresponsible and if so, do you think such irresponsibility will leech into their parenting skills?
Are you on the other side? Do you support home birth or birth choices in general? Are you pro-natural birth or do you consider medicine for pain ok? What's your take?
Here's mine:
1. I'm pro birth choice. I don't care where a mother delivers....as long as she is comfortable, the baby is safe, and she is listened to and respected as THE active participant in the birth.
2. I am pro natural birth for myself and I HATE that so many women go into labor without even considering trying natural birth. I don't care what the doctor says....YES, all the drugs and the epidural do affect your baby and you. Maybe temporarily, but they DO affect both of you and I think they should be avoided as long as possible. If you get to a point where you just can't stand it anymore, you very well could be at the finish line! Then again, you may not, but you tried and that's what's important. If you find you can't continue without medication, then by all means ask for it! It's your choice.
3. I am VERY against the big money being made in the birthing business. There is NO reason at all for the enormous increase in the number of C-sections being done in this country. Sure, for individual women there may be a reason...however, elective C-sections? Planned/scheduled C-sections for convenience? C'mon, folks! A C-section = more money in the hands of medical professionals. That's all it means. It's ridiculous!! If there is a medical reason for the procedure, then yes, absolutely have one! If there isn't, then what's the point? So a vagina that is DESIGNS to stretch won't have to do that? So a doctor who is slammed with birthing moms one night won't have to wait on your baby to be born? So a doctor who is going to the islands for vacation can deliver your baby?
Talk about irresponsibility. Look to the medical "professionals" for that.
I'm sorry, but I get so angry about it. Had I not done research and educated myself, I'd have simply done what my doctor suggested. I think to blindly follow what a doctor suggests is just as irresponsible as avoiding pre-natal care. We need to be pro-active.
Oh, and here is a Home Birth Bingo card she has on her blog:
Of course it is biased...she is an OB, after all and what self-respecting OB would put her own profession in jeopardy by supporting a decision that might ultimately make her profession obsolete?
One final addition: Check this report out.
http://www.gentlebirth.org/ronnie/homejjg.html
Here's a snippet of what they discovered:
On a side note:
I've just subscribed to the blog, The SkepticalOB...she is very anti-home birth (which I am definitely not). I am just curious to hear her side...the other side. The side that considers birth to be a medical situation rather than a natural situation. The way I see it...had it not been for home births of the past, none of us would exist. If interested yourself, check it out at:
http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/
What is your take on home births? Are they safe? Are they a "selfish" decision on the part of the mother? Do you think mothers who choose to birth at home are irresponsible and if so, do you think such irresponsibility will leech into their parenting skills?
Are you on the other side? Do you support home birth or birth choices in general? Are you pro-natural birth or do you consider medicine for pain ok? What's your take?
Here's mine:
1. I'm pro birth choice. I don't care where a mother delivers....as long as she is comfortable, the baby is safe, and she is listened to and respected as THE active participant in the birth.
2. I am pro natural birth for myself and I HATE that so many women go into labor without even considering trying natural birth. I don't care what the doctor says....YES, all the drugs and the epidural do affect your baby and you. Maybe temporarily, but they DO affect both of you and I think they should be avoided as long as possible. If you get to a point where you just can't stand it anymore, you very well could be at the finish line! Then again, you may not, but you tried and that's what's important. If you find you can't continue without medication, then by all means ask for it! It's your choice.
3. I am VERY against the big money being made in the birthing business. There is NO reason at all for the enormous increase in the number of C-sections being done in this country. Sure, for individual women there may be a reason...however, elective C-sections? Planned/scheduled C-sections for convenience? C'mon, folks! A C-section = more money in the hands of medical professionals. That's all it means. It's ridiculous!! If there is a medical reason for the procedure, then yes, absolutely have one! If there isn't, then what's the point? So a vagina that is DESIGNS to stretch won't have to do that? So a doctor who is slammed with birthing moms one night won't have to wait on your baby to be born? So a doctor who is going to the islands for vacation can deliver your baby?
Talk about irresponsibility. Look to the medical "professionals" for that.
I'm sorry, but I get so angry about it. Had I not done research and educated myself, I'd have simply done what my doctor suggested. I think to blindly follow what a doctor suggests is just as irresponsible as avoiding pre-natal care. We need to be pro-active.
Oh, and here is a Home Birth Bingo card she has on her blog:
One final addition: Check this report out.
http://www.gentlebirth.org/ronnie/homejjg.html
Here's a snippet of what they discovered:
- Cesarean section and hospital birth is not doing for women and their newborns what doctors and hospitals claim it is! Ask for statistics and studies when your doctor claims hospital birth is safer than planned (not accidental, unattended) home birth. I would be interested to see them. If your doctor says, "That’s common knowledge," you would be wise to seek another health care provider. I have only heard of one study done that claimed hospital birth was safer. It included deaths caused by unplanned, unattended births which occurred at home, and was backed by (guess who?) ACOG (The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists).Other studies:
- Dr. Lewis Mehl did a study comparing home and hospital birth with mothers from California and Wisconsin with matched populations of 2,092 mothers for each group. Midwives and family doctors attended the homebirths; OBGYNs and family doctors attended hospital births. Within the hospital group, the fetal distress rate was 6 times higher. Maternal hemorrhage was 3 times higher. Limp, unresponsive newborns arrived 3 times more often. Neonatal infections were 4 times as common. There were 30 permanent birth injuries caused by doctors (Jones 99).
- Dr. Mehl did another study comparing 1,046 home births with 1,046 hospital births. The groups were matched for age, risk factors, etc. There was no difference in infant mortality. None! However the hospital births caused more fetal distress, lacerations to the mother, neonatal infections and so on. There was a higher rate of forceps and C-section delivery and nine times as many episiotomies (Jones 110).
- Robert C. Goodlin reported in the Lancet on 1,000 births, half occurring in a hospital, half in a birth center. There were no IVs, monitors or anesthesia used in the birth center, but the babies were born in better condition. Besides that, three times as many cesareans were performed in the hospital (Korte and Scaer 37-38).
- In 1982, Anita Bennett and Ruth Lubic evaluated 2000 births that had happened in 11 freestanding birth centers. The neonatal death rate was 4.6/1,000. The authors were denied information on low-risk women delivering in hospitals (Korte and Scaer 45). One wonders why....
- I found these comments very interesting. A British research statistician, Marjorie Tew, did long term studies of the safety of birth in various settings during the 1980s. She found that among a sample of 16,200 births, the perinatal mortality rate was lower for out-of-hospital births, even for very high risk mothers! At a relatively high risk level, perinatal mortality was three times higher in hospital (Korte and Scaer 49). Tew then expanded her research by using information from the Netherlands, a nation where both obstetricians and midwives practice. The perinatal mortality rate was ten times higher in the hospital births there, even though the risk status of the mothers at the time of delivery was not much higher than that of mothers who chose midwives (Korte and Scaer 50).
- In the Netherlands, which has a significantly lower infant mortality rate than ours, the C-section rate is 7% (Jones 20). The episiotomy rate is 6%, whereas ours is 90% (Jones 19). Midwives attend most of the births in the Netherlands. (Midwives tend to allow time for the woman's tissues to stretch and to use perineal massage, warm compresses, and good head flexion to avoid both episiotomies and tearing; hence the lower Netherlands rate.)
- In 1988, the US ranked 19th among industrialized nations for low infant mortality rates. By comparison, Sweden, where all mothers receive midwifery care, even when they are high risk and may also require physician care, ranked second (Jones 95).
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