The Birth Center

I had an appointment with the midwife today and found out that I am anemic. This isn't really a bad or surprising thing because a lot of pregnant women become anemic. So now I have to not only continue taking iron supplements, but this other liquid stuff for faster absorption. I have to mix it with orange juice. I'm sure it tastes super yummy.

John also just found out that he is anemic, which is common in distance runners. So that's kind of interesting. Neither of us has ever been anemic before.

The best news is that Maryn is developing just fine. We are taking a childbirth education class at the Birth Center. It's going pretty well. Last night they showed us a video that is kind of trying to reshape our idea of childbirth. Because of TV drama, we're accustomed to the panicking, rushing to the hospital, cussing at the father, etc. But some things from the video are kind of weird. So this Mexican lady on the video had a homebirth and gave birth in the tub, which is OK by me. The weird part was that her husband and her two sons, approximately 6 and 4 years old, jumped right on in there with her. All naked. Weird.

I thought you guys might like to see some pictures of the birth center, where Maryn will be born. We're going to try to video tape some of the birth (not the actual birth because I'm just a tad too conservative for that), and maybe we can encourage more women to give birth with a midwife.






The first three pictures show the bedroom where I'll actually have the baby, maybe in the tub, maybe not. The last picture is the kitchen where I'll be free to EAT, DRINK, and walk around. Some of you may not know this, but they keep women in labor from eating or drinking in a hospital just in case she has to have a C-section, which is crazy to me. How can I do ANYTHING for 12+ hours without eating or drinking?

OK, that's all I will go into for now.