Change in Birth Plans

I was leaning more toward a home birth with this next baby, but now we are planning to use the same freestanding (not affiliated with a hospital) birth center where we had 1-year-old. The main reason we were thinking of a home birth (other than how nice it would be to not have to pack up and drive across town in the middle of labor) was that there is a group of midwives that does home births for which my insurance would cover 80% of the cost. My insurance would only cover 50% of the cost of the birth center, since it is out-of-network. But the more we thought about a home birth, the more it just didn't seem right at this time. In the first place, we live in an apartment with lots of neighbors around, and in the second place, we decided that 1-year-old is really too young to see and hear Mama in hard labor. It would be too distressing for him. We will probably ask my mom to come and stay with 1-year-old at our house while we go to the birth center.

So, after lots of thought and prayer and E-mails and phone calls, we (well, the Lord, really!) worked it out so that the birth center will bill my insurance and accept whatever insurance pays as full payment. Wow! That means that the birth center birth will end up costing less than a home birth would have...all we have to pay is a small deductible. And I get to use the nice big birth tub with jets again....ahhhhhh! That really made my labor with 1-year-old more manageable. It was still incredibly, ridiculously hard (he was posterior) and long (about 2 1/2 days total), but God and my sweet Hubby helped me get through it once, and I know they will help me again. I am also hoping that labor won't be as long this time.

Anyway, I am feeling good about the decision to use the birth center again, and I am so pleased and amazed at how God worked out the financial aspect that I just had to share!