We knew my insurance didn't cover maternity. I did make an effort to get maternity, but my provider didn't even offer it. D's insurance does have maternity, but when we got that plus sign, we decided we were going to try for medicaid. Because we weren't married yet, I'm still classified as single and unemployed. Surely they would take pity on a single, unemployed pregnant lady.
We found out that our county's health department is quite a drive away. Never mind that there were perfectly acceptable health departments literally 10 minutes away. Because we lived on the corner of the county, we couldn't go to the closer departments. Someone on the phone for medicaid told me we needed to go to our counties health department, so we made an afternoon trip of it. It involved a lot of waiting. D wasn't allowed to go back with me, but I had to wait even longer in a back waiting room. I filled out a form with a nurse then was told to wait. Then I peed in a cup and waited some more. A nurse took me to her office to give me the piece of paper that I was pregnant, then I was back to waiting. At last they let me pay my $10 and go home. D had little time to chill before he had to go to work. Even though we already had a blood test from my doctor, we had to go out of our way to get a health department form saying I was pregnant.
Once we had the official piece of paper, we went to a branch social services office with all our paperwork. We expected to be able to go through all our paperwork that day and be on our way, but the one lady at the center just gave us a form to fill out that would have to be mailed in. We insisted on staying and filling it out there and giving it to her, and this is why I think we got a meeting with someone at the big social services a few days later. So we drive back down to the out of the way bigger city in the county. I was anxious because I was already 6 weeks along. I had pregnancy symptoms, but I wanted nothing more than to make sure that baby was still there, to verify that a life was inside of me. We sat in silence for about an hour while she worked on the computer, but the waiting paid off. Instead of having to wait the 45 days for it to process, she was going ahead and filing it so we could see a doctor right away. I was elated! But it was right before a holiday weekend, and she warned me that I won't be able to have my number verified by a doctor until Tuesday.
I found out there are absolutely NO birthing centers in the area! How could there not be a single birthing center in all the towns we live near? Also, there was only one place with midwives that came up on a search. Even they are giving me the waiting game! I'm going to be nearly 9 weeks before my first appointment, and I'm not even going to be seeing a midwife yet. I'm going to be giving my information to a nurse on that first appointment, then I can make an appointment to get my preliminary blood work done. They won't even do an ultrasound until around 18 weeks!
I can only dejectedly accept it. I'm not high risk, so they won't do a visual, tangible test unless I've had something go wrong before. Is it too much to ask that D and I just want proof that baby is there? Cravings and soreness aren't tangible for him, and I need to know it isn't for naught. The battle for monitoring will continue probably throughout. I may even cave and insist on a home doppler just so we can know it's still there and alive. Can you blame me for being a worried mother?
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