Yeah, the "you're basically 40" comment did not start you off in my good graces.
I've actually never birthed in Lakewood Hospital and don't intend to. My one non-homebirth was born in Virginia at a hospital-run birthing center not technically attached to the hospital, but the entrance doors were within 100ft of each other and the birthing center was more freestanding maternity ward than baby-friendly facility, it was unusual that I refused the IV and epidurals were the norm. I was attended with him by a CNM who was a former homebirth midwife, and there was this parade of strangers that kept pouring into the room to witness me giving birth while I was pushing, which I found distracting, disconcerting, and disrespectful. We moved back to Cleveland (my husband and I met at CWRU as undergraduates, I am a Parma Senior High graduate) when he was a month old, and moved to Lakewood shortly before his 1st birthday in 2005, then bought the house we live in now in November 2006.
After the ready availability of houses in which 3 generations could live together comfortably, the next biggest draw was the school system, so the Kamm's Corner area would never have made the grade with us. Walkability was also a major factor. The hospital was in the top considerations, particularly since my eldest demonstrated his lack of fear of heights by climbing a 6ft ladder we had out while doing some interior decorating a couple weeks before he learned to walk. He was carefully supervised while doing that, but it put us on alert to his daredevil nature (which hasn't changed much in the last 11 years, though it was his younger brother that necessitated our first visit to Lakewood's ER for stitches after a tumble down a short flight of stairs at 19 months old. The family joke is that my 2nd son's mortal enemy is architecture, he's injured himself via klutziness against household fixtures many times now (he's
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I am glad that you had such a pleasant experience at St. John's. I think that was the other hospital my doctor spoke highly of. It's not an option for me because it's too far for me personally - my labors go too quick from the point I realize it's "go time" and when the baby is born. With my 1st, my water broke at 4am, we determined it was time to leave home at 8am (planned non-home birth), I walked myself into the birthing room and he was born at 11:46am. My 2nd contractions got to the point I couldn't sleep through them around 4am, my water broke just after 7am and he was born at 7:17am. My 3rd was born in the caul after a similar labor to the 2nd but significantly shorter pushing phase (I was only consciously aware that it was push time for less than 2 minutes before he was born, the older 2 took about 20 minutes each). All the already-born kids have slept through the subsequent homebirths. We're lucky in that my in-laws are here if we really need to make a quick exit toward the hospital (tho my mother-in-law was working full-time until this past spring - she worked at Hugo Boss then turned 65 after the factory closed and before the new owners started calling people back, so it's not exactly surprising that she wasn't one of the ones called back). I've also had good friends who were labor supports for me through 2 of my homebirths, but none of them made it to my 2nd homebirth (3rd kid) due to how fast he came and the midwife almost missed the 3rd homebirth (4th kid) that was attended by a friend who was at the time working on her doula certification only because she decided to spend the night at my place when I said I felt like things were feeling "soonish" the evening before.
I love hearing that other families have had such empowering and individual birth experiences. Very glad for your family, and always happy to hear from others who have chosen a midwifery model of care. Perhaps you'd be interested in joining the still-embryonic efforts to bring a freestanding birthing center to Lakewood, come what may to Lakewood Hospital? Nickie Antonio and I have discussed the idea several times over the years. It won't benefit me directly (this is intended to be my last pregnancy - I feel that five is a sufficiently large pilot subject pool for my developmental/socialization process theory research. After all, Piaget based his theories on his pilot subject pool of 3 offspring, and he didn't even gestate them himself!
). Over 50% of births in Ohio are paid for by Medicaid last I checked pre-ACA (aka Obamacare). Births at freestanding birth centers are MUCH lower cost care and generally have better breastfeeding rates, which futher saves taxpayer dollars through myriad ripple effects (improvements in many long-term health metrics for mother & child as well as formula costs via WIC to name just a few). Lakewood, culturally, is well suited to be home to such a facility. Sharing happy birth stories that don't involve epidurals and such helps other parents-to-be realize that they can do this, too. Oh, and I'm also a huge fan of waterbirth
My 3 homebirths all happened in a big circular pool I bought at Target for about $30. It *was* the proximity of the support at Lakewood Hospital that made my husband comfortable enough to support me in birthing at home (at least the 1st homebirth), and I worry that not being as near may decrease the confidence of other future expectant parents. Fear during labor increases pain, and being afraid of how long transport would require may be too much in the fear-tension-pain cycle for some parents, even with access to labor caregivers trained in emergency protocols as are available in a birth center. If Lakewood had had a freestanding birth center in 2007 when my 2nd was born, I may have chosen to birth there. My reasons for not wanting to birth him in a hospital had more to do with feeling like a sideshow freak - err... "training opportunity" to complete strangers who happen to be employed in that setting than anything else (other than becoming too precipitous in labors to get to a birthing room after handing off the kids to another responsible adult in the wee hours of the morning). The way that freestanding birth centers do things, my mode of birth would not be so unusual as to draw the audience of every not-otherwise-occupied staff member in the wing, so I would have considered it for my 2nd if it had been an option. I'm really tired of families not having options between homebirth and medical setting birth in the entire Cleveland metro area. I hear so many stories so often of birth processes that were disrupted in ways that had negative ripple effects on the family, and the disruptions were just because that's the routine of the setting not because of anything particular to the mother or baby. I was extremely blessed by the community support I had through my first pregnancy & early postpartum in Virginia, and feel called by that gratitude to pay that kindness forward.
Kids are home and wandering in & out of the room after a grandmother-supervised watergun fight (77 degrees after election day!?! O.o ). Sorry if this is wandering all over the place, highly distracted.
