Reply to WHC midwives or OBs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve been a patient with the GW midwives and OBs as well as the WHC OBs and I did a consult with the WHC midwives and I know many people who have delivered with both, so I am very familiar with all these practices. If OP doesn’t feel strongly about having a midwife, I really think she should see an OB for her care. The WHC OB group is excellent, they support unmedicated vaginal birth, they spend plenty of time with their patients (an argument I often see for midwives is that they spend more time with patients and provide more compassionate care and in my experience this has not been true, I’ve had OBs spend more time with me and listen better to me than midwives, in fact in some instances some midwives really favor a “tough love” approach that is maternalistic and condescending), and they can handle the full range of any and all complications that would arise in your pregnancy. There really is no reason to go with the midwives over the OBs unless the OP has a strong preference for midwifery led care. Since she clearly does not, and does not understand the professional differences between both, I don’t see a compelling argument for the midwives. They really are not the norm since something like 90 percent of US women deliver with an OB.

Another problem with midwives is that they can allow the ideology of natural childbirth to influence their practice in ways that can increase risk to moms and babies. If OBs are said to be too risk averse, midwives have the opposite problem—they can ignore or not recognize risk factors and warning signs because they believe birth is a natural life event. In my experience, most new parents would rather have the former than the latter for their care provider during the birth of their child. And this fact can be especially true of some midwifery groups in town. Midwives are also mid level providers who can’t handle all complications of pregnancy and labor and delivery so anyone delivering with a midwife has to be comfortable with the risk of needing to be transferred to OB care. Having experienced a transfer to OB care midway through my birth, it’s not an experience I would recommend. Since OP clearly doesn’t have a preference, she should start with the provider can handle everything that could come up during her pregnancy and birth. [/quote]

Thanks! I think that’s what I’m going to do. I could not be less qualified to know which is better and I get no juice from a sense of control  so I’m just going to default to the doctors. -OP[/quote]

Do what you want OP but the PP you are replying to had an atypical experience with the WHC midwives. Most of her review applies more to GW midwives. WHC midwives do not have an unmedicated vaginal birth agenda.

A practical question you probably can answer: do you want 6 minute (OB) prenatal appointments or 30 minute (HWC MW) ones? [/quote]

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