Birthsmart, the back story…
Hey all,
I thought it was high time that I gave you a place to comment and talk amongst yourselves about this latest series…I’ve gotten a whole lot of letters about it, thanks! It’s kind of funny how I came up with the idea, I was lying in bed nursing the baby down and singing lullabys to the girls and that’s usually where and when I come up with all my ideas. But, I didn’t have any ideas and I felt really stuck. Really really stuck. And I started thinking about a certain website that debunks the merits of homebirth (no, I will not give you the address, I won’t give that woman a bit of traffic, seriously) and then I thought about that first visit to the ob/gyn office and WHAM! the whole series came to me. After I got the kids to sleep I snuck downstairs and wrote out all 10 comics, so that I wouldn’t forget…The series is based on my own experience (my first birth was a hospital birth) and from the experiences of friends, and parts are of course totally made up, but man, it feels really familiar doesn’t it? Like you’ve been to that office and had that same thing said to you. yep, me too.
I still have quite a few left, I got sidetracked by a talent show and visiting relatives this weekend. Also, a date.Yep, you heard me right, my superhero and I went on a date this weekend, out to dinner at an Italian Restaurant. It was sooooooo romantic and lovely and worth noting since it was our first date since 2003 (gasp!) but as you all know there are many ways to add romance to your life with the kids around (but a date is still nice now and then ;o) !
Love,
Heather
mamaof5 said,
June 5, 2007 @ 9:51 am
I have been waiting for this! lol
I love how the poor mom doesn’t see the same person twice. I feel really blessed that I have never had the experience the comics are depicting. I can not imagine how frustrating that all is.
Heather in Tucson
Julinda said,
June 5, 2007 @ 10:38 am
I had both my kids in the hospital, induced for medical reasons, so I definitely can identify with these. I think the doctor was doing what she sincerely thought was best and safest, but I think I and the babies would have been better off without the inductions. As for how I feel about my birth experiences - well, let’s just I was in no rush to have my second one (6 years and 4 months between them) and I definitely am not having a third! I can’t even think about (let alone write about) my birth experiences without being upset. I consider them major trauma!
Julinda
abowser said,
June 5, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
That’s VERY similar to one office I used to be at. I left rather quickly and never went back.
Thankfully I found a decent OB who treated me like an intelligent adult capable of understanding and managing her own care! I still had two preemies, but that wasn’t his fault!
wiffersnapper said,
June 5, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
Amen, ladies! This reminds me of #1 daughter, and I was even seeing midwives! Their theory was- you see all of us, so that way, you’re comfortable with whoever’s on duty when you happen to go into labor. My baby was still delivered by a total stranger, albeit a very nice one. And they wanted me, at the end, to see them every week, but they claimed to not have any appointments from 3:00 on. So I guess I was supposed to leave work early once a week for the last four weeks of the pregnancy? I told them that if they wanted to see me (and my insurance money!) they’d better make room in their busy schedules! Never again! I’m off to see an independent midwife this time.
My friend just had a baby in a hospital… c-section because she would have been VBAC (and was “too risky”), followed by a circumcision and lots of bottles of formula. We agree not to discuss childbearing methods.
outsidermom said,
June 5, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
I think I stumbled on that site. It really upset me. They seem to conflate homebirth with unattended birth. Not exactly the same thing. So far both of my births were in the hospital but the second one was attended by midwives. Most of their clients have homebirths and they bring with them everything that you would find at a regular hospital. The backup is a hospital with a highlevel neo-natal intensive care unit (that is to say the place they would transfer you and your baby to from the regular hospital when there are complications).
So here’s my question - if you have an unattended birth does that mean no pre-natal care? Or do you enlist with midwives and then oops forget to call them when you go into labor?
janaki said,
June 6, 2007 @ 8:53 am
I eish I had done a homebirth! But I guess I was all worried with this being my first that I wanted to try a hospital birth instead. I told my husband I wanted to do a homebirth next time and he was not too keen on the idea. But I have plenty of time to convince him otherwise since we’re not planning on number two coming along until we move to Texas.
queenbean said,
June 7, 2007 @ 11:06 am
I had a hospital birth, and while it was better than most people’s experiences in a hospital, there are definitely some things I can identify with. I was given pitocin, which I didn’t need because I was progressing just fine, and it was administered without my knowledge (presumably they asked me, but I was asleep when I noticed that there was a new drip in my IV, so if I answered at all, it couldn’t have been coherent), and had a lot of different people checking me before my doctor finally arrived.
I love this series of comics. Keep it up!
janaki said,
June 11, 2007 @ 7:46 am
Yeah, I can totally relate. I don’t know if I needed to be induced. Supposedly her heart rate dropped a few times during contractions, but I don’t know if they took into account that the monitor slid down a few times and gave a false reading. If they hadn’t induced me, she probably wouldn’t have been jaundice. But oh well “better safe than sorry”. It’s like this in hospitals because there’s too many sue-happy people!