I think that your concerns are all legitimate and should all be weighed very carefully, since you are at the stage where you're still able to make the decision (not already pregnant).
If I were you, I would write down a pros and cons list and then reason with yourself if your "worst case scenarios" come true on the negative side if you could deal with it and how you would cope. I think everything is do-able if you have a plan, right?
In my experience, babies do rearrange life--and depending on your goals and personality, it's not always an easy adjustment.
It wasn't an easy adjustment for me and still isn't. I did get stretched out and fat and still feel with feeling unlovable. My baby has not been easy to take care of (not that any baby actually is, but compared with friends' babies mine is much more high maintenance) and I often deal with a sense of lost identity.
It was reality--and most women I know face the same reality. But, some women find that motherhood and all that goes with it is so overwhelmingly positive that they consider all the negative stuff to be tolerable or no big deal.
Having said this, because of health implications, depending on your age, if you find that your list has a strong leaning to the positives outweighing the negatives, or the negatives being manageable, I would jump in and have a baby. Most people I know, overall, don't regret having children but I do know people who regret waiting to have them because with age they often lose the energy they might have had at a younger age and getting pregnant in itself can be more of a challenge that is stressful and expensive.
All the rest can be figured out later. None of us know the answer and none of us can predict how things go with being a parent but since you've said you want to be a parent, I think you should just become one.
Make a plan to meet all the obstacles--as well as you can (i.e. staying in touch with parents, having a home birth etc.). As far as home birth goes, maybe you can arrange to go back to Canada for your birth and recovery--I did that with my birth and it worked excellently for our family.
If I were you, I would write down a pros and cons list and then reason with yourself if your "worst case scenarios" come true on the negative side if you could deal with it and how you would cope. I think everything is do-able if you have a plan, right?
In my experience, babies do rearrange life--and depending on your goals and personality, it's not always an easy adjustment.
It wasn't an easy adjustment for me and still isn't. I did get stretched out and fat and still feel with feeling unlovable. My baby has not been easy to take care of (not that any baby actually is, but compared with friends' babies mine is much more high maintenance) and I often deal with a sense of lost identity.
It was reality--and most women I know face the same reality. But, some women find that motherhood and all that goes with it is so overwhelmingly positive that they consider all the negative stuff to be tolerable or no big deal.
Having said this, because of health implications, depending on your age, if you find that your list has a strong leaning to the positives outweighing the negatives, or the negatives being manageable, I would jump in and have a baby. Most people I know, overall, don't regret having children but I do know people who regret waiting to have them because with age they often lose the energy they might have had at a younger age and getting pregnant in itself can be more of a challenge that is stressful and expensive.
All the rest can be figured out later. None of us know the answer and none of us can predict how things go with being a parent but since you've said you want to be a parent, I think you should just become one.
Make a plan to meet all the obstacles--as well as you can (i.e. staying in touch with parents, having a home birth etc.). As far as home birth goes, maybe you can arrange to go back to Canada for your birth and recovery--I did that with my birth and it worked excellently for our family.
