Chapter 4: Finalizing the Birth Plans

When we arrived home the first thing I did was call the midwife and sadly learned that Missouri had passed a law that made it illegal for midwives to deliver without direct support from a physician. In the St. Louis area, there are no physicians who support home births by midwives. In fact, there was only one physician who attended home births and he wasn’t particularly supportive of midwives either, though they did assist him during homebirths. I was absolutely distraught but decided to see him. I was beginning my 8th and last month and had no more time to waste.

Again it was determined that I was a good candidate for homebirth. My pregnancy had been completely uneventful. I had remained active. My history was good. So I called my obstetrician’s office and told the receptionist that I was going to have my baby at home, wouldn’t be keeping the rest of my appointments, and requested that my records be sent to my new doctor.

What we didn’t know was than my baby was living with a time bomb. In time it was destined to go off. None of my prenatal care showed any signs of abnormality. It wouldn’t have mattered if it did. Awareness of vasa previa was non-existent. Even if she had done the appropriate tests, it wouldn’t have been noted. As they say, “you find what you look for”. Vasa previa was not something anybody ever looked for. It was just “too rare” and considered undiagnosable.

My mother was dubious about my plans to deliver at home but was supportive and attended birthing classes with me. The birthing classes were held at the midwife’s home who worked with my new doctor. I didn’t know it then, but in retrospect it was a blessing to have this doctor and midwife team attending me. We were given lists of things to have on hand to prepare for the birth. The midwife visited our home. And we waited.