In the summer of 2002, we moved into a new larger house because we had been trying for our first child. When we woke up on the morning after we moved in, Amy announced she had to pee. I looked at her as if to say “I know it’s a new house, but I know you can find the bathroom” and “You’re an adult, I’m sure you can handle it on your own”. But then it dawned on me that we were going to do the Early Pregnancy Test. It was positive and that was 6/23/02.

In the coming months Amy did all kinds of supplementing, increasing various vitamins, etc. and we went to prenatal visits at Kaiser. We had already decided to use the Kaiser midwives for the birth. As we later found out, that is of limited value because they are governed by the hospital’s “doctors”.

Along the way, we took a class in natural childbirth. It’s known as the Bradley “husband coached” method. The primary theme in this childbirth method is relaxation. In early November, Amy went out for a run and slipped off the wet curb in front of our house and fell flat. The next day, after being urged by friends, Amy called the Kaiser advice nurse. She said that Amy should come in and get hooked up to a monitor to check on Courtney. Amy didn’t like that idea. By then she could feel Courtney moving around so we decided not to go in.

This made Amy wonder about fetal monitoring and it’s safety. In doing extensive research, she found that it can be damaging to the child, and also can indicate false problems that will make “doctors” want to intervene and do all sorts of unnecessary horrible things to mother and child.

It was decided then that we would have a home birth. We hired a midwife and had prenatal visits with her as well as continuing them at Kaiser. Continued.

Scott