Doula Answers (And More)

Things are maybe starting to fall into place a bit.

For one thing, we met with the doula this evening, and we really liked her.

Of course, we'll want to check her references, but we're pretty sure we're going to hire her.

I don't see being able to "click" with another one much more that we did with her, and she holds several tie-breaker cards, in that she's done lots of deliveries at our hospital, she's worked with (and delivered one of her own babies with) our OB practice, and she's a La Leche League leader.

Before she came over, we looked at the list of suggested questions on the DONA website, but didn't print them out or really stick to them.

Near the end of the meeting, after lots of rather free-wheeling discussion, she consulted her notes to make sure she hadn't left anything out.

It was obvious that she was working from the same list of questions!

In addition to her actual doula-ing, she also does some semi-formal childbirth education.

We asked her opinion of the two classes that we're looking at, and she said that (as I had suspected) the hospital class (which she used to teach) is pretty much "Here's how we do things here, and this is what we're going to do to you," but that it's valuable to get familiar with how things work at the hospital, even if you don't want all the default procedures to actually happen to you.

She also said that the Bradley method is great, and she's sat in on classes with these instructors, and they are good, but that alot of what you learn in the class ends up being kind of wasted on a hospital birth, because you won't be allowed to do it anyway.

So, what I think we're going to do is take the hospital class ($60, probably the all-day Saturday version) and then let her supplement that information with the most useful highlights from the Bradley method and other things that she recommends. That will mostly be relaxation techniques, prenatal exercises and things like that.

I think that will work out really well for us, not just in terms of learning what we need to know, and will actually be usable, but also schedule-wise and financially.

Speaking of finances - the other "falling into place" thing, I won't discuss in too much detail right now, as nothing is certain, but we are seeing some financial options that we'd not considered before, which could be incredibly helpful after Peeper arrives.

There are, of course, still tons of details to be worked out (about all these things) but I'm feeling a lot more secure about it all than I was a few days ago.

Add in the great ultrasound on Wednesday, and I almost feel like I don't have anything to worry about.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha . . . .