Hi friends!

The past week or so I have felt led to share more in depth information of our journey to Baby Menges! We are doing things a bit “different” and I feel like I should share the reasons why!

Let me start by saying our decisions in no way effect our attitude or opinion on your labor and birth, whether you choose the more “crunchy” route or the “medical” route, its your baby, your body, your family. This isn’t a post to make you feel bad about your decision to have a hospital birth, or use a doctor, and certainly not if you chose or choose to use an epidural. These are only our personal preferences with information on why we chose them!

Judgement free zone here people. Period.

So now that we are past that…

If you read any previous posts or know us personally you know we are using midwives for our prenatal care and labor and delivery. If you had told me year ago this is where we would be now I would have never in my life believed you. Seriously, I would have called you crazy.

I personally thought midwives and natural birth were for “hippies”. Ya know the ones from Forrest Gump. 🙂

I was naive, but then the Lord sparked something in my heart to learn more and truly understand why even one family would decide to utilize the care of a midwife.

What I discovered was an entire world truly dedicated to women’s health and their child.

A world that is motivated by assisting women in the most empowering moment of their life, not by money or insurance companies.

A world that has been proven to be just as safe as hospital births (some experts even say safer) with a normal pregnancy.

A world that views birth as a natural and beautiful occurrence, not a scary medical illness.

A world where I feel safe and taken care of, where I feel like we have their 100% attention and as long as I need to ask questions.

And most importantly a world where I am not fearful of giving birth.

I have always hated hospitals, like hate hate them. I have seen so many family members and friends, and had a bad experience in one myself.  I always get a weird light-headed sickly feeling when I have to go in one. And who doesn’t hate the flourescent lighting? 🙂 Knowing my fear of hospitals you can imagine how peaceful and excited I felt when I realized I didn’t have to give birth in one.

That’s when I discovered the Bay Area Birth Center in Pasadena.

I went with my friend Breanne, who I found out was using them as well, to one of her appointments back when Baby E was still in her belly. It felt so natural and comfortable. I knew beforehand we would be using them, but once I went it solidified it.

We actually wanted a home birth initially, but our midwives prefer (don’t require) first babies to be born at the Birth Center just because first times mom don’t know what to expect, and rightfully so we obliged. We gladly accepted this and are really excited about giving birth there. They are currently adding two new birthing rooms, so yippee Baby Menges will be born in a swanky new room!

I can’t. wait.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of why we chose to go the midwife route, but in the coming weeks I will share some more solid research on statistics, etc just for more educational purposes. I actually called the Birth Center and asked for some good solid resources to share! Stay tuned for those!

Please note we still believe in medicine and doctors, and even hospitals when necessary. They save lives, but there is a time and place for them.

We are choosing to approach labor and delivery as something the Lord created my body to do and to handle, something completely natural. Baby Menges will instinctively know what to do and will work with my body, as it also knows what to do because that is the miracle that God created! It’s incredible, I am more in awe with every word I read on how detailed our bodies are.

And together he (or she, but I’m pretty sure he’s a he) will be born in a loving and non-harsh environment, and hopefully into daddy’s hands!

Until next time,

xoxo, Tamara

Ps. Did you know midwives helped deliver Moses, their names were Shiphrah and Puah!                                         Check out Exodus 1: 15-21.

Midwives have been around long before modern medicine y’all! Happy rainy Thursday!