Pre-natal Care Attempt, #1

Yesterday, I called the Austin Area Birthing Center about coming in for a tour. I filled out a prenatal questionnaire online, and a little while later one of the midwives called me back. 

She walked me through all of the health-issue questions I'd noted. None of them gave her pause (asthma, anemia, ruptured disc) but she did request that, if I needed help sleeping, I take Unisom rather than Gabapentin. She asked, "You *do* know it's a Category C drug during pregnancy?" I did actually know that. I'd researched both it and Naprosyn when I found out I was pregnant. I stopped the Naprosyn immediately, as it can cause birth defects in the third trimester. But I saw enough anecdotal evidence that moms had taken Gabapentin all throughout their pregnancies and had delivered healthy babies, although some of them did have their own infant withdrawals when they were weaned (insomnia, inconsolable). But I didn't know that Unisom was a possibility, and now I do. Anyway, the Gabapentin wasn't really helping with nerve pain... it was just making me sleepy. Same with Naprosyn. I'm not sure whether it helped as an anti-inflammatory; I was still in pain when I was taking it.

The midwife also noted that, when I come in for the tour (which should take about an hour and a half and includes blood work and other risk-assessment tests), that I also needed to meet with their perinatologist, the one MD that they have on staff. This, friends, is because I'm old. Apparently, I require "advanced genetic counseling." That's a tactful way to put it, isn't it?

My hope is that the risk is deemed low enough that I'll be accepted to the Birthing Center. They work with the health insurance I will have a week from now, and it's a wonderful facility. Obviously, my supreme hope is that this baby is healthy... but assuming that, I would prefer this delivery experience to be more calm and less controlled than my hospital delivery. I have no problem advocating for myself, but when one is in labor, one would prefer to concentrate on that and not have to say, "Step away from me; do not intervene unless one of us is in danger!" every half hour.