On Tuesday we met Christy Martin for the first time in person. She is at the moment our first choice of midwife for whenever we get prego. We got a tour of the birthing center and got to ask all the questions we could think of. (Which for me, was a lot!) And she in turn also got to ask us questions. After all, we were not only interviewing her, but she was interviewing us. She asked us why we were looking into a midwife and a homebirth. She wanted to know our expectations of future births and our experience of our previous birth. She was very good with Taylor and let her play and truly did not seem to be disturbed by her running around and singing or playing with a huge birthing ball or crawling onto a birthing chair, etc. She was very relaxed and stayed focused in on what my questions and concerns were. She listened, never checking her watch or looking around. She was great. She was younger than her picture portrayed, but I felt really comfortable with her and was amazed at how she answers the questions I had, especially in their simplicity, it all made perfect sense. It really made me realize how wonderfully perfect the design is of the human body.
After meeting with her, I have no worries if the cord is wrapped around the next babies neck. I know how often they listen to the heartbeat and how. I know how long they will let me go past my EDD. I have no doubt that the next birth will be worlds away from my first experience. I think I will be very informed of my options and educated prior to the birth on what to expect, how I will handle various situations, how she will handle situations, etc. I really feel comfortable with this.
As for the birthing center, it was really cute and I could see how it could feel like a family in a house. Even Taylor thought it was a house. When we left she said, “thank you for coming to my house”. (Yes, she said the wrong thing, it should have been “thank you for letting me come to your house,” but it was cute.) I thought it was good that they offer maternity yoga classes (very granola of them). I was happy and expected to see classes for breastfeeding and birthing classes so that wasn’t a surprise. They share their building with a chiropractic office. They have one side of the building and the chiropractic office has the other. That doesn’t bother me. And the fact that they encourage their mothers to go to a chiropractor during the pregnancy doesn’t bother me. I got adjustments into my third trimester with Taylor.
So, now we will just have to calculate how much everything will be since insurance companies view this center as “out-of-network”, that’s just our luck folks! But even if we pay the full amount ourselves without any help from the insurance company at least we know where our money is going. And it will still be cheaper than a hospital birth with our insurance coverage.
That was our first midwife/birth center experience. Now, it’s time for me to do some more research. Have a great weekend everyone!
