Prenatal Care Ideas for an Unassisted Pregnancy

I'm exploring all sorts of new ideas for this pregnancy, since I have decided to forgo any "normal" sense of prenatal care. I would have considered seeing a midwife for some prenatal care, but we have no midwives in our city which I find rather unfortunate. However, I'm fairly confident that I will be able to take care of myself and will intuitively know if anything is wrong. It is only at that point, if I sense anything is abnormal or "wrong" that I would seek the help of a medical professional.

So what does prenatal care look like when you plan a freebirth or unassisted pregnancy and birth? First, put very simply, I think it means: taking care of yourself in a pregnant state. I read something in an article that make perfect sense to me. It mentioned how doctors, and even midwives to a certain extent do not provide much in the way of "pre-natal care" rather, they provide prenatal testing and observation. How true that is!

I think of a typical doctor's appointment like I had in my last pregnancy. With my last baby I did plan to go unassisted, but wanted to safety net of a doctor that I could see if needed. So I went to a fraction of the regular appointments that most women would attend in a normal pregnancy care routine.

The appointments looked something like this:

1. Show up in the crowded, stuffy waiting room and check in. Next wait "patiently" or not so patiently next to snuffly kids, old people and other random individuals who may be harboring an infectious illness.

2. Wait longer. Doctors are always overworked, and behind with their patients so it is common for them to be 30-60 minutes behind schedule on any given day.

3. Finally! My name is called. The nurse grabs my chart, checks my weight on a scale and asks for a urine sample. Then I am sent to the cold, boring examination room.

4. Wait some more. Read some out-dated architecture magazines. Check the time... head out to the bathroom in the hall because although I've already given a "sample", I already need to pee again because I've been waiting so long.

5. The doctor arrives. He asks "How are you doing?" not really wanting a full-blown answer... only wanting and requiring any pertinent physical symptoms that may require his attention. He does not want to hear how I'm doing emotionally, nor how I am coping with this pregnancy, nor whether I am eating a healthy diet or continuing to exercise.

6. After some standard questions that are meant to "cover his butt", he checks my blood pressure. Of course, being that this is more like an interrogation room, not a comfy happy place that makes me think healthy thoughts about my baby, I am nervous and my blood pressure is slightly elevated.

7. Doctor quickly listens to baby's heartbeat with a Doppler and measures the height of my fundus. Little information is volunteered to me unless I specifically ask.

8. "See you in a about 4 weeks" he says, as he strips his latex gloves off and leaves the room.

Am I really that far off? I don't think so. I've always found the prenatal care routine in a regular medicalized setting to be cold, unfeeling and purely observational. Then there are all of the tests. Tests that most women probably have no need for... but they are considered routine. All aspects of pregnancy are measured by what is "normal" in the medical textbook. There is very little space for variation despite how different women are and how unique and individual a pregnancy can be.

Here's what I think my prenatal care will look like:

Lots of rest, good nutrition and healthy physical activity for myself.
Observe and track changes in weight, how I feel, fundal height (after about 15 weeks or so) and checking my blood pressure at the drug store monthly and maybe more often in the last weeks.
Listening to my body and baby and how I feel and making decisions based on that.
Massage and Chiropractic care in the later months to help deal with the changes in posture and any back/hip pain that may occur.
Relaxation and enjoyment of my final weeks... not stressing about how "overdue" the baby will go, but enjoying every movement and every day that I keep this baby so close to my heart.

I think the fundamental of my unassisted prenatal care is TRUST. Trusting my body, trusting my intuition, trusting that I was created to grow babies and give birth naturally. Even if I don't follow a textbook example of pregnancy, I believe that I am uniquely equipped to birth naturally and have a wonderful pregnancy and birth!!!