I have seen three midwives and one birth assistant at our
Birth Center in the last ten days. What has been most interesting about it is the varied responses our pregnancy progress has produced.
First, the most experienced midwife talked the training birth assistant down from four centimeters to "one, maybe two" and emphatically informed me not to dream about, long for or even hope of an early delivery. I think she knows me best, namely, that overcoming my own expectations of an early delivery is the largest battle in having a happy last few weeks of pregnancy.
Second, the next midwife allowed me a healthy two centimeters, maybe three, (with a wink) and told me to get the bag ready.
Last, the newest midwife gave me all four centimeters (which I suspect I deserved from the beginning), and asked if the bag and car seat were in the car. She preferred scheduling to break my water in the next few days, but if we wanted to try for "spontaneous labor" then would only allow two contractions before I should be in the car ready to go, as she would expect the baby in an hour or two.
All of this within a little more than a week.
Unfortunately, I think the first midwife was right about one other thing, babies tend to be like their siblings, and none of this baby's siblings decided to vacate the uterus a day early, despite my bodies efforts to start labor over a month before the due date!
Given that this baby's siblings also like fast labors, and
all midwives agree that this labor should last no more than two hours, in which time we would have to retrieve daddy from work, stash three children somewhere, and get to the birth center, all the time making use of the parking lots known as highways here, we have decided to burst this baby's bubble, literally, on his/her due date, Aug 8, rather than wait longer for "spontaneous labor".
