BD#3's Birth Story (part of it)

We didn't have insurance at the time, were using the midwives because they were for sure cheaper than hospital even with "non-insured discounts" yadda yadda. Then (when BD#3 was at 44 weeks by LMP--remember those extra-long cycles), I had an ultrasound, just to make sure there wasn't anything going on physically to interfere with labor because I'd have regular contractions every afternoon & then they'd stop every evening. Nothing felt "wrong" per se, I just wanted to make sure, yk?

Well, the tech and the Dr at the high-risk maternal-fetal place absolutely flipped when they saw my LMP dates and how quiet the baby was. And immediately assumed something MUST be wrong. Sure there was: baby ALWAYS took a nap mid-morning, my blood sugar was crashing, and they were incorrectly assuming I was WAY overdue. But by their measurements my amniotic fluid was low & there was a lack of "large motor movement" so BD#3 only scored a 4 out of 8 on the fetal well-being assessment. Which automatically made the birth a "high-risk" one and my MW turned me over to my regular Dr (who had delivered my first--I already had a good relationship with him). By the time we got out of the m-f place, baby's risk had been downgraded to a 6 of 8 but the damage had been done, so to speak. The high-risk Dr had downgraded his recommendation from c-section NOW to induce & get baby out this weekend/ASAP. (This was a Friday.) My dear Dr broke my water at 7:30 pm and BD#3 was born at 11:56 pm Friday evening (in the middle of our church's ladies retreat LOL).

All that to say I wound up on the hook double. B/c when I transferred care from MW to Dr, she pro-rated her fees out to cover all the pre-natal visits, plus them being "on-call" for me from week 36 on (and all the way to 44 weeks). By the time the pro-rating was done, we only got $500 back from the MW. Plus had to pay the entire hospital bill OOP (tho they gave a non-insured discount and cash-within-a-month discount which helped), and had to pay my Dr his delivery fees (which I seem to remember he chopped in half because he felt so badly about my missing my preferred home-birth. But. Yeah. And I was royally provoked at my mid-wife for a LONG long time. (So, yanno, I don't feel any guilt about accepting her really low-ball offer this time around. This will be our 5th kid with her, she's made her profits.)

Anyway. It's interesting how an unexpected hospital birth can sour the whole birth experience even tho "you have a healthy baby to show for it!!" as people like to chirp at you. It's still hard.