Still no baby, but we had a good midwife appointment yesterday. The baby is doing great! He or she was having fun playing with daddy yesterday while Jill was listening to his/her heartbeat - the resting heartrate was about 135, but when Travis would touch it through my belly, it jumped up to 155! That is a great sign that the baby is healthy and responding well.

I'm dilated to 2 cm. and 75% effaced. My body is giving all signs that I'm ready to have this baby. We decided that if the baby isn't born by this Sunday, we'll take measures to naturally induce. My midwife wants to wait until this weekend to be sure I'm at least 41 weeks - estimated due dates are just that - estimated! So we want to be 100% sure we aren't inducing early. Our country has the highest rates of low birth weight babies - could this be because doctors are so eager to induce labor as soon as the due date comes and goes?

She will induce with an herbal medication that stimulates my body to produce its own labor inducing hormones. Labors induced by Pitocin, the induction drug used in hospitals, are gnerally more painful because it causes my stronger and more frequent contractions. This is harder on both mother and baby. This natural form of induction merely jump starts my own hormones, so labor comenses as I normally would.

We just rented a documentary called "The Business of Being Born." It was an excellent presentation of the over-use of hospitals and doctors in birth, yet it fairly presents the need for hospitals in high-risk pregnancies and in emergencies. Unfortunately, it contains strong language, so just be aware of that if you decide to check it out. You'll probably find it at your local library.