Life on the Road

So we came here because the circumstances were right to settle down while we have a baby.  But of course we had no idea what we were getting into as far as the outlook for having a baby in the state of Florida.

Baptist seems to own almost all the hospitals here, and the description of the Birth Center at the brand-new hospital here in Homestead sounded great.  So we went for a tour.

I was… I don’t think it’s too strong a word… horrified. 

Wolf said it “lived up to every modern birthing horror that you’ve dreamed about in your darkest subconscious recess”, so you see it really wasn’t just my hormones getting the better of me.

Let me share with you just a few of the highlights (lowlights?) of the tour:

• While showing us the labor/delivery room, I noticed that the beds had the connectors for squat bars.  I asked the nurse if the had them available, and she said that, gosh, they must have them somewhere, but they’ve only been in the new building for a few months, and she didn’t know where they were, probably in a storage closet somewhere…
• Hospital policy is for continuous fetal monitoring - so mom is confined to bed upon arrival.
• We arrived at the lounge area near the nurses’ station where she pointed out the microwave (for dad, since you won’t be eating anything), and the fridge, which had juice in it (for dad, since you can’t be having any).  She grudgingly conceeded that I could have ice chips, or we could bring popsicles for me to suck on occasionally.
• She showed us the nursery.  I wanted to clarify that if there wasn’t any emergency, they would never have to take the baby out of my room.  She hemmed and hawed.  This conversation led to the big revelation, when she said, “You know, those people who come in with birth plans [Oooh, the way she said it! Yikes!], 90% of the time they end up with C-sections, because something comes up…”
• We moved on to the recovery rooms.  I said that I’d had two babies already and had never yet seen a recovery room, so I doubted I would stay long enough to need one this time.  She was speechless.  I looked around at the small bed, and spartan room, and asked about rooming in with baby (figured I’d find out, since you never know…).  She off-handedly said that they could certainly bring baby to me there, since they had the wheeled carriages to transport them in…

At the conculsion of this enlightening experience, we asked for a list of ob’s that delivered there.  Wolf asked if she had any recommendations for which ones might be best if we were looking for a more natural birth experience.

She hemmed and hawed some more, and finally just said straight out that most of the doctors in the area were very traditional/conservative, and it was the result of an extremely litigous climate in the state of Florida.  She offered the name of a group of midwives, suggesting we might have better luck with them.

I just stewed for a couple of days.  After the challenges the accompanied Jewel’s birth, I don’t feel comfortable doing a homebirth with this one, so my options were starting to look pretty limited.  This was going to be harder than I thought.

Luckily, the local chapter of La Leche League was meeting that week.  If anyone would know how to have a natural birth in this crazy place, it surely would be them… 

Sure enough, nobody was having any nursing challenges, so the small meeting happily got off topic to discuss births.  All agreed that the lawsuit-happy Floridians had created a very inhosptiable climate in hospitals, and one mom said she had travelled out of state to have a VBAC!

The highlight of the discussion was a new mom’s testimony about the Miami Maternity Center.  But that’s another story…