Midwife -- How does it work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure your friend did not recommend a doula? I think a midwife plus an OB would be pretty unusual.

My two cents is that, if you have a good OB and a good partner, you don't need a doula. If you have doubts about either, though, a doula might be helpful. If you do get a doula, do not be cheap about it; find one with tons of experience and excellent references.

Helpful, thank you! So, midwives and OBs are seen as either/or?

Yes, Either an OBGYN or a midwife delivers your baby. One or the other.

Since midwives cannot perform C-sections, if you need a C Section, you will be moved over to the care of the OBGYN, essentially.

I was in the care of midwives for my entire pregnancy. Even when it became clear I would need a c-section (breech) I continued to see them. While the actual procedure was performed by an OB, the midwife explained everything to me in the OR and held my hands during epidural before DH was allowed in. I had a very positive experience with this model of care and recommend it.

Are you in the DC area? which practice did you use?

This was with Midwives of Washington Hospital Center. They made it clear from the beginning that they would try to give me the kind of birth I wanted, which in my case would involve an epidural and nitrous. I would not have gone with a practice that pushed unmedicated birth because I knew that was not what I wanted.

[Anonymous]

Ok PP but some women don’t know that they want pain relief until they are experiencing the actual pain of real labor. That is why having a provider who supports your needs (pain relief or not) and can adapt to your needs and support you in the moment is really important. No provider should feel that their role is to enforce an intention you set prior to actually experiencing labor. It’s about as nonsensical as giving 12 year old girls purity rings and having them make abstinence vows and then trying to enforce it when they are an adult who wants to have consensual sex with a partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because I know this will come up, not all people who call themselves midwives are Certified Nurse Midwives.

A midwife who practices in a hospital in always a CNM--they are licensed RNs with additional graduate-level education specifically in midwifery and women's health.

Some birth center midwives are all CNMs. I believe all the Birthcare midwives are. The midwives at the center I used (not in DC, and sadly since shut down) only had CNMs.

Occasionally, CNMs, like the ones at Birthcare, will also do homebirths. Home births are where you will run into people calling themselves midwives when they have little to no education.

As an aside: is anyone else bothered that a medical professional, albeit outside of their specialty, doesn't understand the role of a midwife?

LOL, leave it to a posters on this forum to 1. immediately call out the incorrect use of a term by a first time mom and 2. question the medical professionalism of an M.D. who somewhere, somehow might have possibly used a term incorrectly with respect to childbirth! SMH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I know this will come up, not all people who call themselves midwives are Certified Nurse Midwives.

A midwife who practices in a hospital in always a CNM--they are licensed RNs with additional graduate-level education specifically in midwifery and women's health.

Some birth center midwives are all CNMs. I believe all the Birthcare midwives are. The midwives at the center I used (not in DC, and sadly since shut down) only had CNMs.

Occasionally, CNMs, like the ones at Birthcare, will also do homebirths. Home births are where you will run into people calling themselves midwives when they have little to no education.

As an aside: is anyone else bothered that a medical professional, albeit outside of their specialty, doesn't understand the role of a midwife?

I.suspect OP misunderstood what her friend was trying to say. No offence, OP but it is confusing when you don't have a background. People get things Drs say twisted all the time.

And honestly- its not an either/or with MDs and midwives. My midwife consulted with the OB on my case. It's a team effort.

+1 The OP's friend was most likely talking about a doula, not a midwife. I am more bothered by the fact that no one in this scenario thinks it's anyone's job to make sure the new mom is ok.

But I suppose not really shocked, given the abysmal maternal mortality rate in this country.