A Baby in the Dutch Oven

       We have been spending the past few weeks reading up on having a baby in general, "What to Expect when Expecting" and having a baby in the Netherlands.  Of course we read the horror stories but they all seem related to not getting anesthesia.  Having no anesthesia is actually very common here.  Adding anesthesia makes things more complicated (longer labor, more monitoring necessary for the baby, etc.), so they try to keep things simple.  That also goes for testing.  They do the basic tests and really don't do too much of a work up unless there is some history or other factor (age, other health problems).  And an OB/GYN isn't really consulted unless the Midwife, the main medical expert that we interact with, determines that the pregnancy is not progressing along the normal path.

         But from everything we read, we know that we need to figure out what we want, make that clear to everyone and not leave any room for confusion.  Now the only thing to do is figure out what we want.