If some one had told me 5 years ago that I would give birth without medications, outside of a hospital, and in water, I would have told them they were insane.  That is why I don’t even know where to start to thank you for the care provided for me during my pregnancy, labor and delivery.  When I began investigating using a midwife for my delivery,

After 2 years and 10 months of marriage, my husband and I found out we were expecting. I always new that I wanted a Midwife to deliver my baby. At the time, I was going to a regular Ob-gyn office and was seeing a Midwife there, but when I was told that she would only be able to do my prenatal and not deliver my baby, I was very disappointed. I immediately discussed things with my husband and started searching elsewhere. In the meantime, we knew that if we were going to have a Natural Childbirth that we need to take some sort of Childbirth class. 

When my husband and I found out that we were expecting three months after our wedding, we were in shock! That was something we had not planned for and had been trying to prevent. Since we were new to everything- marriage, pregnancy, children- we simply went with what we knew, and that was the obstetrician. We decided to learn more about pregnancy and childbirth, so we took a childbirth education class for twelve weeks, and after that, we knew that we wanted to have a normal, unmedicated birth experience. We took our birth plan to our doctors and they basically told us that our goals and expectations were unreasonable. After some discussion, a hard look at the available options, and a referral from a good friend, we decided to interview Linda Weaver. I only had a few weeks before my estimated due date, so we acted quickly and Linda agreed to accept us into hers and Amy's practice. Four weeks later, we called to let them know that I was in labor.

When my husband and I found out that we were expecting our first child, I didn’t even know that people could have their babies at home. My paradigm of birth was summed up by the following stages: a woman goes into labor, drives frantically to the hospital, goes through excruciating pain, gets an epidural and then pushes out a baby.

“My mom's comments about doctor/hospital care (after having five children) made me desirous of a different method of childbirth should I ever be blessed with a child. A friend of mine was a midwife apprentice at the time I was expecting my first, and she answered our questions satisfactorily - and ended up catching our little boy when he was born!  After that experience, I knew I wanted any other births to be at home as long as I was able to, and the Lord has allowed us to have the joy of delivering our two daughters at home.

“When I first got pregnant, I assumed I would have a hospital birth, but as I looked into it, there were a lot of things about hospital care that I didn't like. I didn't want a lot of interventions, and I wanted my risk of C-section to be as low as possible.  Also, I really wanted the birth to be a calm, intimate, non-stressful and wonderful experience.  After much research, my husband and I decided that homebirth would give us the best chance of having the experience we wanted, and we were right!  Our homebirth was a truly beautiful experience for us both.”

Finding ourselves pregnant for the third time and much later in life than the first two, I knew that I wanted a special birthing process. I had always been interested in having births as natural as possible, yet with my first two I was unaware of midwifery.

In the last few years I heard many wonderful stories about this birthing process and became interested. After much research I was convinced that this was the way to go. I loved the idea of a gentle birth and having our baby in the security and familiarity of our home.  My husband and I are so glad that we chose this method. It was an incredible experience.

We will always treasure having our family close and involved in the birthing process.  It was so wonderful to be able to go to sleep in our bed with our new baby while the family went in the living room to talk about the events of that day.  Our little boy came into this world in the gentlest way possible, there were no probes, forceps, or any other unnatural devices, just a warm pool of water with loving hands to hold him.  The midwives were amazing.  We felt so much comfort in their knowledge and ability, we knew that we were in good hands.  Calmness filled the room as they reassured us and encouraged us each step of the way.  What a blessing!