Well, we visited The Farm on Saturday and were super pleased with our midwife Pamela. It was pouring the whole way from Indiana to Tennessee and the drive was long but we made it safely in one piece and were super glad we decided to take the trip.
Pamela spent over 2 hours with us discussing policies and options. We talked about my health, the progress of the pregnancy, took my stats and she even did an internal examination of my pelvic structure. All went really well!
Shoot I even gained another pound and a half between Thursday and Saturday, I weighed in at almost 112! My blood pressure was normal (100/60) and she agrees that my weight gain of about 12 pounds over the course of 16 weeks of pregnancy is great for my body type and is also normal in pregnancy.
I told her about how upset my OBGYN made me about the weight thing. She said that my OBGYN was most likely just commenting on my weight without taking my body type and personal history in to account. Besides, she agreed with the info in my book that says 14 pounds weight gain is typically the average gain for the end of the 2nd trimester. She also noted that those numbers are only averages and that typically smaller women gain more.
We talked about lots of diet and nutrition stuff, got many pointers on what I need to eat and why. I even asked her about the possibility of “being too small” for a natural birth. She did an internal exam to see how wide and deep my pelvis was and confirmed that I had ample room to birth a baby naturally.
Apparently the visible size of our hips and pelvis from the outside does not indicate the size of the pelvis cavities internally. She even had a pelvis (one of those educational skeleton thingies) to show me and she went over all the measurements of mine compared to the pelvis she was showing me.
We talked about potential complications in natural birth that usually warrant a c-section, things like breach positioning, the shoulders getting stuck or multiple births. She assured me that they have delivered babies in all these situations naturally and that it is no challenge for them, since I am already in their care.
I guess they do turn people away who show up months before delivery wanting a more complicated natural birth (VBAC, breach or multiples) at The Farm who have not gone through prenatal care with them. They are very particular about prenatal care, they want you to have proper attention during pregnancy (even if it is though your local doctor) and they want to thoroughly assess all your risk factors before agreeing to do a natural birth with you. It is not all about making money for them, the want to do what is safest for you and your baby so that means turning people away sometimes.
We also learned that Pamela has EMT training and that all the midwives in the area also participate in the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit training course as a means to further their education. The Farm also has LPN’s and RN’s on staff to, that was a fun tidbit of info for us.
Also, CPM’s are legal in Tennessee and The Farm midwives have a great working relationship with staff at the regional hospital so in the case of emergency (or if the mom simply requests it) there is no hesitation in transporting to the hospital to finish the delivery.
We toured a birthing cabin despite the pouring rain and learned that each room is equip with oxygen, baby warmers and all the essentials. They’ll even analyze my child’s cord blood after delivery to determine if the RhoGam shot is even necessary (which they also have on site to administer.
Both N and I were super pleased with Pamela and are sure birthing at The Farm is right for us. We aren’t required to travel down for anymore prenatal appointments but we are welcome to if we want and are able to work it in to the schedule.
They are working with us to make things convenient with regards to how far we live from The Farm. Pamela will be chatting with us once a month by phone following each prenatal appointment with our local doctor to get updates on the progress of the pregnancy.
We are also forwarding my prenatal charts from the OBGYN to Pamela so she has all the most up to date info on my health and the pregnancy developments. It looks like birthing at The Farm is the direction we are going, for sure and we are so relieved! It really is the best of 2 worlds for us and our birthing needs!
I’m really glad you found a place that will meet your needs and make you feel comfortable.It helps to have good support by people you trust while in labor.It’s going to be the best day of your life, so fasten your seatbelt 🙂 It’s going to happen so fast and will be overwhelming but when you get to hold your newborn for the 1st time, it’s the greatest feeling on earth. I can’t wait to find out what gender Tater Tot is.
That is so awesome! I think it would be so neat to birth at The Farm. You will definitely have to keep us updated on your progress & experiences there.
I’m so happy that you have found the Farm to be a comfortable and supportive place for you to birth your baby.
It’s so important to be with people you can trust.
I’m really excited for you but also to be able to travel with you…I’m loving hearing all the updates.
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The Farm sounds like a fabulous place. I’m just curious, but will your insurance pay for any part of the delivery, like supplies and the RhoGam shot if you need it?
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Donna B. »
We are hoping that the answer to that question will be yes and The Farm will submit a claim to insurance just to try and see if we can get any reimbursement. Chances are we wont and we are ready for that but many ladies who have delivered at The Farm have had denied claims that eventually got partially reimbursed when the right people were contacted.
With supplies and all the extra expenses the total works out to be about $4000 for the delivery and $1000 for the months stay there in a cabin.
I’m so glad everything is working out like you want!
I’m so excited that you found what you’re looking for! So, you stay there for a month before you deliver? Will N be able to get that much time off of work? I don’t mean to be nosy, I’m just curious how this works because I know its a pretty long drive for you. I have my fingers crossed that this all works out for you:)
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Becky »
I’ll be showing up during my “delivery month”, meaning I’ll arrive about the 37th or 38th week of pregnancy so I am there and ready to go when the baby decides to come and I anticipate staying no later than 42 weeks. I can leave earlier if the baby comes sooner rather than later.
We think the baby will come between the 40th and the 42nd week of pregnancy which is the June 25th (my due date) through the second week of July. The plan is to be there and to be settled in before delivery is imminent so I can go by the regional hospital and have an appointment with my back up doctor and also have time to relax and get ready for the baby. The baby will come when it is ready so the month long delivery window is just us playing it safe. I do not want to be driving 4 hours to The Farm while in labor, that is just a bit to risky for my taste!
N will drop me off there and then head back home for work and to care for our pets. I’ll call him up when early labor starts. Or, if labor ends up coming sometime on or after the due date like we expect he’ll already be there. It all depends on when the baby decides to come and how much time he gets off. We know I’ll be there for some portion of the time without him. That is why I asked my girlfriend to come hang out with me.
Oh, this all sounds wonderful! I’m glad you seem so pleased with The Farm! Sounds like the right thing to do. 🙂
I’m glad that you had a safe and wonderful trip out to Summertown!! It’s amazing, huh!!! Another great thing about being out there in the summer is the swimming hole. Bring a nice prego suit and enjoy that fresh water.
We have our appointment on Wednesday with Pamela. 36 weeks and getting ever so close.
Did you get my message about my in-laws being in town? I wish I could have met up. Next time, though.
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That’s great how that will work out! I was just really curious about the whole process. Thanks so much for explaining it to me:)
Beckys last blog post..Beautifully Obscene
It was a really great trip. Pamela was so comforting and warm. I think the experience will far outweigh the costs.
It is so interesting to watch you guys go threw this with such a different perspective then I had on my delivery. Maybe because I have seen soooo many deliveries prior to having my first I didnt have any desire for a birth plan, natural childbirth, or anything like that. I felt that I saw too many times that that childbirth can be “romanticized” for lack of a better word. My view on “natural childbirth” was that when I got to the hospital I would let myself see how I felt before I requested drugs. As it turned out with Shawn I didnt need any. So, it is very interesting to see someone I love so much with such a different perspective and desire. You know whatever you and N end up deciding I support you. Because I know you will not make your decisions without really investigating the options available. I love reading about all of this. Most of all…I LOVE YOU! XOXOXO
Heidi »
I guess for us it all started way before we were even pregnant. We’ve always been the type to take minor illness and health issues and go to the source of the problem as opposed to seeking out a cure for the symptoms. I feel like that is really all doctors know how to do at this point is to medicate you and offer solutions that only mask the real underlying issue that causes the symptoms.
Remember back in the day when my brothers and I were all medicated due to depression or ADD or whatever? I was on antidepressants until about the sophomore year of high school because the psychiatrist my mom had us seeing decided that was what I needed. The real issue was that I was working through tons of stuff like dieing friends and divorce and abuse… That is hard for anyone to deal with and I got the idea early on that the drugs were just masking the underlying stuff so that things weren’t messy and hard to deal with. Once I got off the pills and proved to the docs that I wasn’t going to kill myself I got to start working though stuff as best as I could.
Anyway, that is where my distaste for “medicating the symptoms” came from I think. I just don’t trust that the doctors are really going to do what is best for me, I feel like they are all so worried about complications and the unknowns about birth that they tend to rush in to interventions, thinking they are helping when in many cases they are only making things harder. Isn’t it crazy how situations in life shape our perspective so much?
hi againb: I have house chores I’m avoiding and your blog is fascinating to me!
let me say a few wordws to reassure you abuot being a smaller woman seeking a natural childbirth. I;m not huge myself but you sound smaller than I am. my fairy godmother, Roslyn, is tiy. a pino teacher for most of ehr life, she had fur girls in the 15 years between when she was 26 and when she was 41. Roas stands abuot 5 feet eight if that now, and probably never weighed nnety pounds. each of her babies was born after an easy TWO HOUR LABOR, weighing betweeen 6 and 7 pounds. all were healthy from the get-go. Ros is still with us at age 91.
most small women had small thers, and upuntil fairly recently “natural childborth” was the only kind of childbirth there was. evolution would have ruled out smaller women brthing successfully back before medical intervention.
you’ll do great, I’m sure. there is a prejudice against small peopole in ur society. don’t listen to it.
I am fascinated about the Farm and it is so great that “I know someone” from our area who is doing this. You will be a role model that it IS a very real option for families in our area. Now you can gestate in peace..and pooey on that ob!