Congratulations! I really wanted to avoid the hospital, and especially wanted a home birth. I also was dead set against being induced. Unfortunately, all of this didn’t end up being an option for me, and I was very concerned (ok, honestly, I was scared) about what hospital birth and induction was going to be like. The cascade of interventions and all the negative consequences was top of mind for me. I actually ended up with an amazing team of people, between my doula (who is also a labor and delivery nurse at a different hospital), obgyn on rotation, and several nurses at the hospital, who understood my perspective and desires and worked with me extremely well. Their knowledge and patience may not have kept me from going on Pitocin, but did ultimately keep me from having a C-section where many other hospitals would have left that as the only option. This is not what I expected from a hospital birth, and I didn’t even need to fight tooth and nail for it. I do believe this would vary by hospital, though, so it’s good to look into your options there. My whole pregnancy, I worked to balance my distrust of many incentives and practices of the medical industry and what I’ve heard about better outcomes with alternative practices against my understanding that those working in the industry really do have valuable knowledge I am just not going to be able to gather online, and the recognition that I’m not a professional and that really does mean something. It’s the same struggle faced every day between humility and self confidence, between respecting and questioning experts, and between seeking help and carrying your own burdens. There’s need to find a balance of both. In light of what my situation was, I’m satisfied with how things went, and in just a few hours my healthy, growing, amazing daughter who is snoozing adorably next to me will be six days old. That’s the most important thing! I wish you the best and I’m so excited for you 😁