argh. well I had the most rubbish night of sleep so far last night - I got a few hours between 4am and 6am but the rest was just napping in between attacks of reflux. Clearly something I ate last night didn't agree with me, and I'm assuming it's not the healthy homemade vegetable soup DH whipped up (bless him), but more likely to be the little fruit crumbles we had for sweets after. Typical.
meanwhile I think LO is having a bit of a growth spurt and I feel like I am going to explode. Having trouble sitting for any period of time due to a pain around my ribs that just gets really tiring. All very boring.
toomanyshoes (love your name) - we found our Independent Midwife on the internet (lots of Googling). We made a short list based on internet research then interviewed a bunch of them, and picked the ones we liked the best. It is a little expensive, esp. in London. We're paying just over £3K, which hurts the wallet, but just gives me such peace of mind that it is so worthwhile. I've got a bit of a control-freak nature and no natural affinity (that I know of) to the whole pregnancy/mothering caper, so I feel like I need all the help I can get, and now I have it!
For that package we get pre-natal care (I'm onto fortnightly home visits now, my visit with yesterday went for about 90mins as I had lots of questions and they want to spend lots of time talking with you about where you're at in your head, as well as your belly - so that you're psychologically prepared for birth when it happens). We also get a special long session with them that's just about preparing for birth, not an antenatal appt. as such, if that makes sense. They're also invaluable for making referrals to other people (yoga, osteo etc).
You also their help at the birth - I'm hoping to have a home birth so if that goes to plan I'll have two midwives with me here for that. If it doesn't go to plan then one of he midwives will come to the hospital with me to act as my 'advocate' with hospital staff (that is, to stick up for me/protect me etc. For some reason I think I might need that if I go into hospital!). They're not actually allowed to deliver the baby in hospital tho'
Then, after that, they look after you at home until you're feeling confident that all is well. Apparently this is usually about 10 days but could be longer or shorter depending on how you're doing. I was talking to a woman the other day who just had a baby with my midwife and she was telling me that the post-natal care is the best bit and that they really look after you. I'll have to wait and see that for myself though (and this was her 3rd baby, so perhaps she wasn't quite as reliant on the ante-natal and birth support as I am/will be).
The biggest problem with Independent Midwives is insurance. They can't get it. So basically, if something goes wrong, you can only sue them and take their house off them... there's no insurance company to give you a big pay out. It's a shame that the situation is as it is, but for us, it's almost inconsequential in the decision making... everyone is different though, and I know that we are taking the risk that if something does go wrong our financial situation could be turned on its head in a big way. I'd rather be optimistic though
Anyways... another big plug from me for independent midwives... I swear they're not paying me to do this! I'm just so happy with the decision that we made, as it's been 100% right for us so far.
Happy to answer any questions on or off list if you or your friends have any!
OK. now back to work!