Validation

DH and I are friendly with another couple--he's an anesthesiologist, she's a nursing instructor.  They are both into Complementary and Alternative Medicine (he's also an acupuncturist), but so far their ideas of CAM don't extend to the realm of childbirth.  Anyway, we had this couple over for dinner last night as they hadn't yet seen our nightmare of a house.  Of course they fussed all over me--typical in Turkish culture--and had a fit that I went to such "great lengths" to make dinner.  Well, they don't have children of their own, and the wife wanted to see all the baby things that I brought back from our trip to the states, so we headed up the stairs to feel the "suitcase of softness," LOL.  We started talking about the baby being born at home and she wanted to see this legendary bathtub (huge jetted jacuzzi tub), so I showed her the bath.  Then I asked if she'd like to see the "birth box."  Of course she needed to know how we were going to handle this or that occurrence, as she has already said that she wants to be there for the birth.

Our birth box is a huge wooden box, kind of like a small trunk, on wheels so that it can be easily moved around to wherever I land for the delivery.  We went through it in detail and I showed her all the goodies--sterile gloves, surgical scrub brush, deLee suction catheters, doppler, automatic BP, chux, etc., but she was truly amazed at the herbs.  I have some kind of herb for nearly everything I could think of, from induction to augmentation, bleeding, anemia, etc.  She quizzed me on each of them, dosage, side effects, etc. and was just amazed that herbs could be used for so many things during pregnancy.  (She just co-authored an article about the use of CAM with cancer patients but I guess it never occurred to her that it has other applications as well!)

Shortly after dinner, her husband looked at my prenatal care records and concluded that everything is okay and admitted that I'm taking better care of myself and with a more watchful eye than a Turkish doctor would.  I'm not sure if they thought that I was just being incredibly cavalier with my "no-doctor" approach, if they assumed that I was against any prenatal care, or what, but now they realize that I am approaching this professionally and with a great deal of preparedness.  They both praised me for being so put-together with my supplies, my preparations, and my records in case of transfer (of course if transferred, it would have to be someone who can read English!).  So there--I have the professional opinion of an anesthesiologist and a PHd-nurse that I'm doing a pretty good job!  It can't get any better than that!