Need Advice on Non-traditional Births.

Had two home births. The 1st was in San Francisco with a horrible midwife...and the baby still came out. All 9 lbs 6 oz's of him. 17 hours of hard labor with the most supportive husband in the world and a scared, control freak, shrieking midwife who had no business attending home births. I labored in the water for about 3-4 hours, but gave birth in bed against my wishes. And still no complications all was healthy...physically on 4-18-00. Thank god for my Bradley Method classes.

My second was a most glorious home birth with my beautiful husband and amazingly intuitive midwife. 4 hours of hard labor + 2 easy hours of labor in which I got to tend to my garden, eat, do laundry, get my bedroom ready, and sweep the floors. My baby was born in the water, although I didn't want to labor in it on 5-3-08. I got to do what came naturally and was never questioned or dictated to. I was truly supported in every sense of the word. I had the best after care. It surpassed my wildest dreams.

My midwive was and still is Davi Khalsa. I just went for my annual well-woman visit. She spent about an hour with me. We talked about everything from PMS to growing zuchini. I LOVE her in a very deep and special way.

Here's how I found my midwife...it's one of the most important decisions a woman planning a homebirth can make. I set up a list of 20+ questions. I interviewed them on the phone. If I liked what I heard, I made an appointment and met them with a list of more questions based on the phone interview. I am the client. I did the hiring.

There aren't very many midwives in the LA area.

I really liked Mary Lou O'Brien. She came VERY highly recommended from UCLA midwives. She has a ton of experience, but her aftercare was not enough for me.

Shelly Girard was also great, but I was afraid that she lived too far away from my home. Her aftercare seemed to also go above and beyond.

I also liked Sue Wolcott, but she wasn't available around my due date.

I LOVE Davi as I said before.

Good luck!

you are on the right track! here is a link to the promissisng looking website:
http://mana.org/memberlist.html
i know who is the most famous in the So Bay midwife - Mary Lue O'Brien. i'm sure i've butchered the spelling of her name - i did not use her servises but know several people who delivered multiple children at home under her supervision.
Good Luck
V.

I did a home birth, actually we had planned on a water-birth with a midwife and doula but they missed it because of traffic. (But arrived damn near after the baby was born...) Its was just me and Dory & he was excellent!!

You & your body just do what its supposed too....so we had a VERY NATURAL childbirth. I will say that after a baby is born anywhere but the hospital there is a LOT of paperwork to fill out for the birth certificate.

Now Evan is 15 months old and honestly I've been thinking about my second one. Gotta say that I wouldn't check into the hospital for just a delivery, only an emergency. There is just something about your own bed when you're healing and resting that is just 1,000 times better than a hospital room.

If you want to talk more about it...feel free to email me (____@____.com), I'm E..

I had a wonderful home birth in January. I worked with Connie and Aleks (midwives) and their assistants at Sacred Entrance. My experience was amazing. It was wonderful to be at home in a relaxed environment. I even needed some stitches after the birth and Connie was able to stitch me up in the comfort of my home where I had the baby and my hubby next to me and was able to listen to my music and just relax. I would highly recommend a home birth if you are a healthy, low-risk candidate. Contact Sacred Entrance www.sacredentrance.com and see when their next information meeting is. That will be quite informative.

There are also some great resources - Birthing From Within, Hypnobirthing and the movie The Business of Being Born and a few others which describe several non-traditional birth options.

Good luck on your adventure!

You'll probably want to take a birth class - most likely Bradley Birth? The Bradley instructor can help you with resources. Best of luck to you - i had a home birth and it was wonderful! Good for you, thinking outside the box :)

We are doing an at-home water birth.....with a midwife. We are really excited.... The baby is due on the 3rd so we are just waiting but have everything in place.

Our midwife is Elizabeth Bachner. She lives in west hollywood but I know she has clients in So. Bay. We love her and she has really walked us through the whole process. Her info is:

Elizabeth Bachner LM, CPM & L.Ac.
DASC Midwife of the Year 2008
www.gracefullbirthing.com
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Let me know if you are interested in any other information like: books, movies, etc.

We've done a lot of research and feel pretty good about the process.