Prenatal Care

For many women deciding on prenatal care is a big choice. Ryan and I have still not completely decided on where to give birth. Being a doula and a huge advocate for educating women on options for birth and prenatal care my obvious choice is a midwife. If there's an emergency, then I don't mind a doctor seeing me. But as long as everything is ok, I trust my body and my birth to a midwife. There's no doubt in our minds about that. It's just deciding who and where.

Many of you know that I've traveled to The Farm in Summertown, TN, for a childbirth education training and midwife assistant training. These world-renown women/midwives are AMAZING!!! My favorite book for women to read about childbirth is Ina May's Guide To Childbirth. Also, Spiritual Midwifery is a beautiful book on childbirth as well. I feel very blessed that these women are not that far from our home.

With that said, receiving prenatal care from them became a definite option in our search. When I was down there in June for a training, I had a quick prenatal meeting with a midwife. Ryan and I set up another meeting this past week. Ryan took the day off, and we traveled down to The Farm for a Day O' Fun!


The Farm Clinic



The Farm Store - They were out of their homemade ice bean.


We met Pamela at The Farm Clinic. We talked and had our meeting for an hour and a half. It was so relaxed and enjoyable. Pamela took the time to discuss vitamins, supplements, diet, and exercise. She even offered to ease my ignorance of a pressure cooker by giving me lessons when I come down again. Yes, I peed in a cup...a dixie cup. And she taught me how to use the litmus paper and read the results. I hopped on the table, and she showed us how to feel the baby in the sack already. It was so much fun for Ryan and me to actually be taught how to feel the baby.

She also took time to get to know Ryan which I appreciated. They talked about park ranger stuff and beautiful national parks. After the meeting, she sat there and let us ask any questions we had. We gave ourselves a self -tour of one of the birthing cabins. All in all - It was a very nice prenatal visit.

We had already decided before we took our little road trip that we would definitely make use of the beautiful weather and the swimming hole at The Farm. We made a quick stop at Target on the way down, so I could get a prego swim suit. After our meeting, it was off to the swimming hole. And it was cold and fun!!!


How do you like my sexy swimming dress?!


Ryan being so cool in the pool.



Prenatal Care at its finest.



Our Day O' Fun!!!