Midwife meeting
D & I met with the area's premiere homebirth midwife (that's sort of redundant around here, as none of the doctor's offices AFAIK have any midwives) on Tuesday evening. It was wonderful! She's a Christian with theology similar to ours, and she totally sees what she does as a calling rather than a "job."
Here are some highlights of what we learned at the consult:
*I learned from the midwife that the OB I will see for my ultrasound is quite hostile to the whole homebirth deal and has expressed that she believes the U.S. should move and is moving toward a 100% C-section rate as she's convinced that 100% C-section = 100% live babies.
Here are some highlights of what we learned at the consult:
- She's attended approximately 600 births (though she believes it's more, she lost some of her records in a move) and only four ended up with C-sections
- She's transported something like twice while in this area
- She's never done an episiotomy!
- The tub for waterbirth is included in the overall fee; she said many women choose to labor in the tub and deliver outside it
- She's a CNM with a master's degree in midwifery; her assistant is a nurse (I didn't get whether LPN, RN, or what)
- She's the only one in the practice, so she keeps her number of clients relatively low; she did, however, attend six births in January
- She's really all about holistically treating issues rather than medicating (e.g., gestational diabetes, etc.)
- She's much more flexible with appointment times (a huge plus in my husband's eyes...he'll be able to come to visits!)
- She doesn't deliver twins, if they're known about in advance
- Since her apprenticeship started in 1989, she has seen only two deaths; both were stillbirths and were known about in advance so they were delivered at a hospital
- She doesn't particularly like any of the local hospitals, so if given a choice, she'd transport to hospitals a couple of counties over
*I learned from the midwife that the OB I will see for my ultrasound is quite hostile to the whole homebirth deal and has expressed that she believes the U.S. should move and is moving toward a 100% C-section rate as she's convinced that 100% C-section = 100% live babies.
