Canadian Ladies!! 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters.... Now everyone can stay in touch!

[countrygirl86]

Those all sound like great reasons! It sounds like there isn't anything WRONG with OB's, just the care with midwives is more available and personal. I'll be sure to get on the list early for the next one (if/when).

 

[JeepGirl]

Jeepgirl, you must have Dr H and Dr F. They are very good. I often wondered why so many thing c-secs are the best way to go. I've heard it takes longer to heal and is more painful in the long run.

Have Dr H and Dr L. they are great Got to meet my OB today as well and she seems fantastic, so thats a relief. She tells me the recovery shouldn't be as bad with the planned cs, so I hope she is right because I never want to go through what happened last time again.

Thanks guys! Sorry for the late reply! I'm actually recovering really well. I was lucky and had a doctor that completely supported me having a vaginal birth if she decided to come earlier, he just didn't want to induce me. I didn't want to go overdue as I was scared to have too big a baby to push out again! In the end, I am happy with how everything went. Recovery is much easier this time after having an emergency section last time. Hardly any bleeding and I hardly have any pain at this point. It was much easier to get up and about this time as well. I have been really lucky to have my MIL here for the week to help with DD1 and she has even been cleaning my house! I get lots of rest with her help. Hope you all are doing well!!

Great news! Glad all is well. I was to PEI this weekend, and we are going back for New Years. I love it there

 

[readynwilling]

i have zero beef with the OB's in the area here. I saw my GP until 28 weeks then switched to OB. My issue is with the hospitals themselves. They are WAY understaffed. There were NO nurses available the night i went into labour. Not the OB's fault. So my reasoning for midwife is you call them and they or SOMEONE comes to be with you. I didn't get a hospital room till i was ready to push because there were no nurses in the hospital. Doesn't matter about hospital staffing if you are using a midwife casue they just meet you there!

 

[Newt4]

I agree, the hospitals are horrible understaffed and under funded. I wish I could do a midwife/home birth but I have a heart condition
During Anna's birth the bed broke and my doctor actually hurt herself. Im just glad Anna was not harmed. Also my shower was broken so I had birth gunk on me for like a day and a half.

 

[readynwilling]

oh yuck Newt!! Its practically a brand new mat ward in my hospital so that part is nice. I am doing midwife - but not at home. my midwife will meet me at the hospital And you can see the hospital from the MW's office window. both are less then 5 min's from my home!

 

[lemongrass]

I'm having a midwife at a hospital as well. I live 45 mins away from the hospital or else I'd be at home! It's simply too far for my comfort. My midwife is only 5 mins away from me though and she comes to my home when I go into labour. I'm so happy about that part! She'll be able to check me and say "you're only 4 cm, we can wait it out here for a few more hours" or "you're 7, lets go!" instead of us timing them and trying to guess. Takes a lot of stress out of my mind!

 

[JeepGirl]

Wow hearing those stories makes me feel so fortunate to have the IWK here, but sad for you ladies that have to deal with the subpar hospitals You should be able to enjoy the experience of childbirth without dealing with the hospitals issues.

 

[gaiagirl]

Lemongrass - I had my midwife come over to assess me early on because I felt like I was making progress, BUT she wouldn't check because my water had broken already. Good thing though because 5 hours later I was only 3cm. LOL. That was a shock!

Things did move quickly after that and I guess in hindsight I'm glad I didn't hear a 1 or 2 earlier in the day

 

[lemongrass]

Lemongrass - I had my midwife come over to assess me early on because I felt like I was making progress, BUT she wouldn't check because my water had broken already. Good thing though because 5 hours later I was only 3cm. LOL. That was a shock!

Things did move quickly after that and I guess in hindsight I'm glad I didn't hear a 1 or 2 earlier in the day

What difference does waters breaking make? Was it a bacteria thing?

 

[gaiagirl]

Yup, introducing bacteria is a risk. At home it's obviously less but still.

I think when things are really progressing they don't worry about it as much, but she could tell I wasn't in active labour so didnt want to check because I could have slowed down and even stopped. That would have meant induction if they started doing checks and then I don't progress in 24 hours...

If it looks like things are really moving along I'm sure she would check!

 

[JeepGirl]

Lemongrass - I had my midwife come over to assess me early on because I felt like I was making progress, BUT she wouldn't check because my water had broken already. Good thing though because 5 hours later I was only 3cm. LOL. That was a shock!

Things did move quickly after that and I guess in hindsight I'm glad I didn't hear a 1 or 2 earlier in the day

What difference does waters breaking make? Was it a bacteria thing?

My water breaking was my 1st sign of labour, and they still checked me regularly. Must depend on the mw/Dr, and maybe how fast labour is progressing?

 

[Alexsmomplus1]

I don't understand how a number of ladies on the forum know how far they have effaced or if they are dilated. My dr doesn't look at my cervix anymore or gives me any indication of where baby is or how big. I go in weekly now for fetal assessments and ultrasounds but other than guesstimating his weight I'm rather confused on why so many are able to be scheduled for inducement or csecs or whatnot this early on. I figured being high risk with a blood clotting disorder I'd have more info given to me than "everything looks good. see you next week."

 

[lemongrass]

I don't understand how a number of ladies on the forum know how far they have effaced or if they are dilated. My dr doesn't look at my cervix anymore or gives me any indication of where baby is or how big. I go in weekly now for fetal assessments and ultrasounds but other than guesstimating his weight I'm rather confused on why so many are able to be scheduled for inducement or csecs or whatnot this early on. I figured being high risk with a blood clotting disorder I'd have more info given to me than "everything looks good. see you next week."

I think they do way more procedures (than necessary!) in the states. They are given a lot of ultrasounds and are given the estimated weight during those. I've never been told the weight from my ultrasounds and I'm glad because they are wrong up to 2 lbs so I don't see the point, especially since it leads to c-sections because the baby is "too big" for the mom to push out and then turns out the baby was only 7 lbs 3 oz and just fine! It makes me sick that they treat these women like their bodies don't know what to do and put it in their heads that they "need" all these unnecessary medical interventions when if they just left them alone they'd be fine! My midwife's c-section rate is 10-15% while the doctor's in my city is 30-40%. Why does my midwife have such a lower rate? Because she encourages women to have faith in themselves instead of treating them like a child that doesn't know what it's doing.

 

[JCh]

I agree Alexsmom/ lemongrass, it seems the US ladies/ docs tend to be more cautious or lenient on letting the body just do things... I've had 2 ultrasounds, and one 3D one I paid for out of pocket..... 8 weeks and 20 weeks... They don't seem to give the size guesses and I don't think I'll have any other ultrasounds at this point....
My doc feels my belly and that's about all. So far no checking anything internal but we'll see since I'm 37 weeks today.... And I have an appointment today in a couple hours.

 

[YikesBaby]

My MW said she won't do an internal check until I am in labour or when I hit 40 weeks... she doesn't want to meddle with my cervix. I've heard many stories of women getting checked by OB's and having their water accidentally broken... so I'm happy she's leaving me be.

I asked if I need a scan to check the size of the baby and she said absolutely not. They are inaccurate by plus or minus 2-3 lbs and all they do is make you worry. She is a huge proponent of letting your body do it's thing... including grow the right size of baby... and I have complete faith in her.

 

[gaiagirl]

Sounds standard! For midwifery anyways...I had no checks until after 40 weeks (was only 1cm). I did have an ultrasound with a weight estimate at 36 weeks but that's just because I was planning a HB and they wanted to verify position, placenta health etc etc.

I agree the way birth is approached medically is just crazy. Obviously there is a time and place for medical intervention and boy, am I glad to have it if ever needed, but it shouldn't be the default!

 

[lemongrass]

I was talking to my husband about this earlier- our bodies grow these babies without any conscious thought or any control by us. Why do people think that our bodies can't birth them too? If it can create and grow an entire human being why is it so common to think that it won't be able to get it out?

The ultrasounds for size thing really gets me. I see all these posts by women saying that their ultrasound said baby was 8.5 lbs at 39 weeks so they have to be induced NOW or have a c-section. It is so rare for a woman's body to grow a baby that won't fit through naturally. My sister gave birth to an 11.5 lb baby with no drugs and she's not an amazon woman. I just have so much trust and faith in my body and it makes me sad that other women don't give themselves the credit they deserve!

 

[JCh]

I was talking to my husband about this earlier- our bodies grow these babies without any conscious thought or any control by us. Why do people think that our bodies can't birth them too? If it can create and grow an entire human being why is it so common to think that it won't be able to get it out?

The ultrasounds for size thing really gets me. I see all these posts by women saying that their ultrasound said baby was 8.5 lbs at 39 weeks so they have to be induced NOW or have a c-section. It is so rare for a woman's body to grow a baby that won't fit through naturally. My sister gave birth to an 11.5 lb baby with no drugs and she's not an amazon woman. I just have so much trust and faith in my body and it makes me sad that other women don't give themselves the credit they deserve!

I agree! There are some occasions where the baby has too large a head for the pelvis - but it's rare. OR the mother doesn't have the stength to push after many hours BUT there isn't really a way to tell before birth in almost all senarios - so the multiple scans are very unneeded.
I didn't have any internal checks at 37 week appt..... I'm thinking they won't check until 39/40 weeks. Doc just says she thinks baby will just be "average" when she feels him in there. He is quite low and she said he's sitting in my pelvis, so I guess that means he's dropped but she didn't mention anything further.

 

[JeepGirl]

I wasn't checked until 39 weeks, which was fine with me. But I do wish I had a scan between 36-38 weeks for position, if I had of known that beforehand, I may have avoided an EMCS and now wouldn't be forced to have CS's for all future births.

 

[juless]

I had a sizing scan this time, but my doctor warned me how off they can be.they just wanted a rough guess, since with my first 11lb 10oz baby after pushing for two hours she was just too big. I was pushing very well too, tried getting up on a bar and different positions but her head was too large. my sizing scan this time was surprisingly pretty close!