Why Choose Home Birth by Monika Stone

Author:Monika Stone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-04-20T01:06:00+00:00

Chapter 7

7. Your Postpartum Care with a Midwife

One of the most overlooked benefits of home birth? Recovery at home! The mom who has just given birth at home does not have to up and go somewhere. Home birth midwives come to you instead.

Amy’s and Lisa’s Postpartum Story

Let’s visit Amy and Lisa one last time to explore their postpartum experience.

Amy had a beautiful hospital birth. She was able to hold her baby for about ten minutes before baby was moved to the warmer across the room. The nurses assessed her newborn son in the warmer. They measured and weighed him. Then, they applied erythromycin ointment to his eyes and injected vitamin K and hepatitis B vaccine per hospital policy.

Baby boy was wrapped in a blanket, given a clean bill of health, and returned to his mother. She was watching from across the room as her baby was getting his assessment. Dad was right by his side.

Meanwhile, the doctor was busy suturing Amy’s perineum for a very common second-degree tear. Her epidural still gave her relief for the suturing and was turned off afterwards. Amy had a blood pressure cuff on her arm that inflated every fifteen minutes to monitor her vitals. She received a routine Pitocin infusion through her IV to prevent bleeding. Once the doctor finished suturing, the nurse gave her a sponge bath. The bed was put back together. She was covered and her baby boy was returned to her arms.

She was so happy to hold her firstborn son and looked forward to nursing him. The nurse helped her get baby latched. Eventually, people left the room, lights were turned off, and mom and baby were alone for a few minutes.

After several hours, the epidural catheter was taken out. Amy was moved to her recovery room via wheelchair. The room was much smaller than the birth room. She would be in the postpartum unit until she was discharged home from the hospital.

The two days Amy spent on the postpartum unit felt like a blur. Her room was a revolving door of hospital staff. There was a nurse to take care of baby, a nurse to take care of her, a pediatrician checking on baby, the ob-gyn checking on her, a lactation consultant, people who were filing the birth certificate, technicians who were checking the baby’s hearing and oxygen levels, and nurse’s aides coming in and out of the room at all hours of the day and night. And then there were her friends and family who stopped by to congratulate her and meet the new baby. She was able to sneak in some naps, but otherwise did not get much rest.

At discharge, she was told to follow up with her ob-gyn at six weeks postpartum. The baby would need to see the pediatrician within two days of birth.

Amy was happy to return home. She took her son to the pediatrician at two days old and two weeks old. He was thriving and growing well. Amy was recovering too. She

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