A New Journey - I'm Excited!

I previously mentioned that I was waiting for South Carolina DHEC to approve the waiver for me to get my prenatal care and give birth at the Charleston Birth Place. They state that women who have had 6 or more pregnancies can not have care at a birth center.

http://www.scdhec.gov/administration/regs/docs/61-102.pdf

D. Professional Care

1. Limitation of Services Offered by Birthing Center: (I) In order to be delivered in a

birthing center, the woman and/or her infant shall exhibit no evidence of:

a. Severe anemia;

b. Diabetes mellitus;

c. Symptomatic heart disease;

d. Severe hypertension or preeclampsia;

e. Renal disease;

f. Thrombophlebitis;

g. Multiple gestation;

h. Active herpes (within one week of delivery), syphilis, or HIV positive;

i. Placental abnormalities;

j. Premature labor;

k. Intrauterine growth retardation;

l. Fetal disease;

m. Previous caesarean delivery with classical incision;

n. Desire for transfer;

o. Anticipated macrosomia;

p. Breech birth;

q. Six or more (nonmiscarriage or nonabortion) pregnancies;

r. Polyhydramnios or oligohydramnios, or chorionitis;

A couple of weeks ago I finally found out they did grant the waiver! I am really excited about this. While natural birth and giving birth are not new to me, being able to have prenatal care and hopefully give birth in such a wonderful environment is! The facility is beautiful, the birthing rooms are amazing and the staff are all great. I am now hoping that everything goes smoothly and I am able to give birth to this baby there. Not being hooked up to monitors and being able to move freely throughout my labor as well as having access to a huge birth pool to labor in will be so nice!

On February 15th I have the usual 20-ish week ultrasound with the OB that the Birth Center consults with and then my second appointment at Charleston Birth Place after that. I am 19 weeks today, so I'll be 1 day shy of 22 weeks at the ultrasound. I'm sure they'll confirm he's (still) a boy at that time as well.

This is a new journey I'm really excited to be on. I'm thrilled that we're having another baby and I really love the life my husband and I have together with our children. Here's to hoping everything goes smoothly!