hi

i bet y'all thought i wasn't going to say a peep about this whole birthin' a baby thing.  admittedly, i'm not much of a starter.  i'm actually not much of a finisher either so what does that make me...a middler?  in any event, this is one process that is going to finish with or without me so i might as well give y'all my 2 cents.

i broke up with my OB/GYN today.  due to the fact that she told us not once, not twice, but three times that it "hurts her feelings" when people leave her practice (enough in and of itself to have justified a break up months ago), i fully expected some sort of seinfeld-like experience right out in front of everyone in her waiting room.  in reality i was the only one there and simply handed my request form to transfer my medical records to the receptionist and that was it.  after much pondering and research (and nothing but healthy check-ups and negative test results) we decided we'd prefer to see a midwife at the Austin Area Birthing Center.  i've got lots of reasons and supporting statistics - too many to list here.  suffice it to say that i'm simply not sick and would rather not be treated by those who specialize in illness and what can go wrong.  if, god forbid, something went wrong i'd want to be in a hospital surrounded by competent doctors.  but if nothing is going wrong (as is the case in 90% of births) then i want to be with the birthing experts, and i believe those are midwives.  (again, statistics abound - maybe in a future post.)  i also want to have a natural birth, without any unnecessary interventions, and the likelihood of achieving that in a hospital is unfortunately very low.  i need to be in a supportive, stress-free environment.  i'm excited about my decision.  i feel very strongly about it, and i feel strengthened by it, too.