Comfort, Confidence, and Support

Today, the baby friend has reached 36 weeks, which means that we are officially in “the safe zone.” Now that we’ve made it this far, we can deliver at the birth center with our amazing doctor and midwife. Barring complications, this little one will come to earth in a place that we have grown to love and where we feel comfortable, with only those that we have chosen by our sides.

...

When I first became pregnant, I immediately visited the doctor that my family swears by. Let me be the first to say, he is a wonderfully intelligent man. Still, I wanted something more. I wanted a personal relationship with my health care provider and I wanted to know that they would be at my birth, no matter what.

In college, I took a course called, The Psychology of Sexuality. Well, it had absolutely nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with sexy time. Of all the classes throughout college, though, it surprises me to look back and realize that this class planted a seed in my mind, for this is the place that I learned about natural birth, birth centers, and midwives.

I began my search for a new health care provider by interviewing a home birth midwife. As great as she was, I realized that I wasn’t quite ready to birth at home. I needed a little more emotional security for my first birth experience.

This led me to Mary, who had just opened Blossom Birth Center alongside Nichelle Whitehead, an OB-GYN.

Stepping into the birth center felt so right. It was comfortable, clean, and peaceful. It was also a great reassurance to have a midwife and an OB in one place – the best of both worlds. As I have continued my appointments at the birth center, I have grown to love Mary and Nichelle so much. I love the things we have in common, the interest they take in my baby, my body, and my life, and their constant support.

I am so excited for this journey. It will be hard work and it will be painful, but each contraction will bring me closer to meeting my little girl or little boy. With my husband and mother by my side, watched over by caring and knowledgeable women, I have faith in the birth process.

...

Here are a million silent prayers that I will be strong and that my body will be capable of birthing naturally, like so many of the women before me.