We Found One!!

After many weeks of searching we have found a midwife that will help us birth our baby at home!!!!
I'm so excited I could just burst! Doug and I drove up to Kirkland (42 miles away) and Issaquah (51 miles away) to interview the only two women in the area who are willing to assist with a HBAC (home birth after cesarean). They are both wonderful women, with fabulous hearts, doing an amazing thing for women who want the choice of where and how to birth their babies.
It amazes me that at this point that women are still not trusted to have the mind enough to make an educated, informed decision regarding our own health and that of our children. Having a baby at home can have some negative connotations from society and even the medical community. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology was recently quoted as saying "They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothing more than a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birth settings is critical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural, low-income and uninsured women don't fall through the cracks.” This is assuming that the only women interested in a natural home birth for their children are the uneducated, poor, and the rather unfortunate souls that just don't have access to the fine medical model that birth has become. Perhaps I'll get down off my soapbox now before I fall and hurt myself.
Anyway, we met with these two generous women for about an hour each (I haven't seen my OB for an hour total since I got pregnant) and discussed our plans for this birth. We talked about my history, my past struggles, and what has brought me to the point of wanting a home birth for our baby. They asked what we wanted to achieve and what our ideal birth was. They offered background of their own experiences and how they would approach our birth and how things would be handled and what their own beliefs about birth was.
This morning I sent off an email (what a digital world we live in) inviting Charlene to share this with us. She just seemed to fit with our philosophy best. She is a wonderful woman, and after only a few minutes I knew that she was the one I wanted to help us. She lives about 60 miles away so she will be traveling quite a distance to help us. She only requested that we call her early when I start laboring. Hopefully Fiona will not choose to make her appearance during peak traffic times! Charlene will come to the house to make sure that she knows how to get here before the Big Day. For anyone that's been here you know it can get tricky - especially at night.
We will continue to see Dr. Fassler for the remainder of the pregnancy. If I should actually go into labor early we want to make sure that we are prepared and are working with a doctor that we are comfortable with. The other midwife we met with said that she and her team have worked with him before and we are lucky to have him. Plus if insurance is going to pay for us to have bi-weekly ultrasounds then I am ALL for it!
This is such an amazing weight off my shoulders. I have been very anxious about this for the last few weeks. Even just waiting once I knew that we had interviews was difficult. I know that Doug and I will be able to bring our baby girl into the world in the best way that we know how. That we will be calm and comfortable in our own home and that we will be in total control of the whole birth. We know what we want and who we want to participate will be honored. That neither the labor nor the birth will be subject to "protocol". The first touch Fiona will feel will be that of her father (who has decided to be the one to "catch"). She will be surrounded only by close friends and family.