Making Choice a Priority While Delivering A Healthy Baby
Ask 10 different women to describe their ideal way to deliver a baby, and you're likely to hear 10 different scenarios.
Kristin Olson
But no matter the path taken during labor and delivery, the desired outcome remains the same: a healthy birth.
Every day, the obstetricians (OBs) in EvergreenHealth's Family Maternity Center help women deliver on this outcome and, along the way, write their own stories of choice and success.
Kristin's OB had come highly recommended by some of her friends.
"I'd also heard good things about EvergreenHealth and their advocacy for natural birth and breastfeeding, which was important to my husband and me," she says.
Childbirth With Choices
Kristin had come to a place where babies, mothers and their choices are celebrated.
In addition to its national reputation as a pioneer for in-room birthing and patient choice, EvergreenHealth had also added a hospital-based midwifery service, offering another option for a low-intervention experience in a safe and welcoming environment.
At EvergreenHealth, birth is treated as a natural phenomenon, not a medical procedure or intervention. That's why our OBs are very supportive of birth choices and feel strongly that it is not their place to intervene unless they need to keep the mother or baby safe.
Initially, Kristin had desired a completely drug-free birth, in adherence to the Bradley Method of natural childbirth that she and her husband had studied in the weeks leading up to her due date.
But at two weeks overdue, Kristin was induced, using the drug Pitocin. "After that, my goal for natural childbirth shifted to laboring without pain meds," she says.
EvergreenHealth OBs ask expecting moms about their birth preferences and things they would like to have happen, with the primary goal being a healthy outcome.
Kristin also remembers the flexibility and support of the Family Maternity Center staff.
"I give the nurses a great deal of credit for reading my birth plan and adhering to it," she shares. "I put in a request for nurses who were familiar and comfortable with the Bradley Method, and both our day- and night-shift nurses were great."
"It's pretty awesome."
Through it all, Kristin and her husband appreciated EvergreenHealth's collaborative spirit.
"After baby Davis was born, my natural inclination was to hold him right away to my chest to see that he tried to nurse," Kristin says. "It was great to be in a place that allowed that immediate contact. It made the 15 hours of labor totally worth it."
"Everyone was really, really a team," Kristin continues. "[My OB], our doula, the nurses. It's amazing what kind of bonding happens when a baby is born. It's pretty awesome."
For More Information
Learn more about the birth options available at the Family Maternity Center
