No baby yet.
Not much of a surprise, though; d.w.'s only (!) 38 weeks along, and average gestation is a little over 41 weeks. Besides, she was 16 days late herself — "and has been late ever since", her mother will reliably quip.
I was just happy she made it to the 37-week mark, the lower threshold for a homebirth. Now we're looking at a window of four more weeks, because at 42 weeks, the state of Iowa makes sure he gets out one way or another. To avoid such an unpleasantly medicalized situation, d.w. faces the unenviable task of chugging bottles of castor oil beginning at 40 weeks. I first heard of such a nausea-inducing practice a few months ago over at Spain Dad and thought, whoa, that must be one of those slightly odd, archaic European folk remedies. Nobody does that these days, do they?
Um, yeah. They do. Just because it's called "natural childbirth" doesn't mean we're going to light some incense and pray to the Earth Mother for vagina empowerment through the ageless wisdom of hu-woman-ity. Sometimes it gets a little messy.
Because she has been blessed with the wonderful combination of generalized anxiety disorder and this unfortunate vomit phobia that, of course, leads to more anxiety attacks, d.w. understandably wants to avoid a situation that makes everything in one's body come out one end or the other uncontrollably.
Though it certainly gives "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" an entirely new meaning, doesn't it?
Yow, thanks for the visual at the end there, ZD. I guess we'll call off our incense and Gaia prayer vigil and just wait for word.
Posted by: Papa Bradstein | 26 October 2006 at 08:10 AM
I don't want to be the one to tell you not to do something, but I just made a mom friend who said that drinking castor oil was the worst mistake she made. It caused her to get so dehydrated prior to labor that she was really weak when they finally induced her. I'm sure it's been totally fine for others, but I just thought I'd make that plug, since it might be something nobody tells you...
Posted by: Phc | 26 October 2006 at 10:46 AM
That's good to know. After all, drinking castor oil essentially amounts to poisoning yourself. But I wonder if that's any worse than being induced with pitocin, and chemically forcing contractions over the body's better instincts. I suppose d.w. will cross that bridge if she comes to it.
Posted by: zygote daddy | 26 October 2006 at 11:09 AM
Yep someone women handle it poorly and some have no problem. I am really not too concerned. I trust my midwife and she has been using it for years and used it herself, so we will see.
Posted by: dear wife | 26 October 2006 at 11:21 AM
Wow...that was so much...information. I guess it's what I have to look forward to eventually :)
Posted by: AuntieM | 26 October 2006 at 11:44 AM
Holy argument for C-section Batman.
Posted by: NYC Dad | 26 October 2006 at 03:03 PM
The thought of chugging caster oil, for any reason, makes me wanna vom.
She's a trooper, dude.
Posted by: Jonathon | 26 October 2006 at 04:04 PM
I wouldn't be worrying too much about castor oil just yet. The baby will come when he's done cooking.
During labor,I took blue (or was it black? don't remember...) cohosh tinture and it about made me gag. I can't imagine the castor oil. *shudder*
Hang in there, dw!
Posted by: andrea | 26 October 2006 at 07:09 PM
ZD- can't you just have sex, that'll give the same results, no? And eat spicy foods? Or are all these Oprah show remedies that don't really work?
I hear DW on the whole barf front. I felt sickish in my class on Wednesday, totally overreacted, and sent them all home early. I should be studied I'm so afraid of throwing up. That's why I don't drink! And why I'm so happy to be blessed with migraines.
This is when I wish DW had a blog- how did you deal with morning sickness, DW?
Posted by: Art Nerd Lauren | 27 October 2006 at 10:08 AM
Well I did not go out of the house very much that is for sure. And no I was not one of the lucky ones who barely felt sick, I was one of the unlucky ones who was sick up to ten times a day. It was hell, but my body sort of got used to it and then I got lovely antinausea meds. And the body is an amazing thing, I do not remember the first trimester at all, those memories are blocked, funny. And I would have done the same thing with my class, I definately understand.
Posted by: dear wife | 27 October 2006 at 12:46 PM
My SIL thew up a few times while she was pushing. She wished someone would have told her that could happen because she thought she was dying from the pain. It also didn't help that Ainsley was kicking the whole time Susan was in labor, but that's another story.
I wish you much success with the home birth and just hope that everything turns out with three healthy happy people (one being much smaller than that other two, of course).
Posted by: samantha Jo Campen | 27 October 2006 at 10:35 PM
Hi -- just found your site. Looks like I/we are about eight weeks ahead of you (i.e., we have a little human on our hands now and can look back at the castor-oil days of two months ago with a sepia-tinged fondness).
Our very Earth Mother-y doula gave my DW a castor oil-based potion she called her "magic elixir" on the day DW's water broke. I can't remember all the ingredients in the Elxir, but I do remember it required a half cup of champagne. The bubbly settled DW down so she could take a nap while I scurried around and packed stuff for the hospital (all the while taking pulls off the remnants of the champagne bottle, of course). Within four hours of the drinking of the Elixir, we had our daughter.
Keep working on the castor oil, DW -- it might just spare you a long labor. (And dad, go buy some champagne.)
Posted by: Dan | 29 October 2006 at 08:08 AM
This post makes me hurt so much I could barely laugh at "vagina empowerment".
But I managed to anyway.
Posted by: Jenny | 30 October 2006 at 01:13 PM
I drank a lot of castor oil (I still shudder, drinking any kind of oil is just icky) and blue and black cohosh tinctures, and homeopathics...and none of it worked to induce labor at 44 1/2 weeks. For some reason, labor just wasn't happening.
I think things just work out how they are meant to be, and the end result of health mom and baby is what's important.
I would still try home birth and natural methods if I could (2 c-sections have precluded that unfortunately, plus I'm thinking 2 kids is plenty) and encourage you to do what feels right.
I think medicalizing birth has been both good and bad. On the one hand, things like Apgar scores revolutionized post-natal care of newborns. On the other hand, being strapped down to a fetal monitor makes everyone more likely to jump the c-section gun and makes labor pretty difficult and uncomfortable. My son would not be alive without major hospital care, but I think my daughter's c-section could have been avoided.
I'm thinking the best of both worlds: everyone start out going as natural as possible, then using hospitals when really necessary.
Posted by: Henitsirk | 07 November 2006 at 08:15 PM