Midwife

[jellolegs23]

I am an adult female with Spina bifida and have thought of having kids myself at some point. I have been reading many posts on here from the mothers and have seen that many more women are opting for a midwife. I never knew this was so common. I looked up online what type of training a midwife might have and there are many different types of certification but most of them only hold a bachelors degree.

In times of pregnancy when as we all know unexpected things can happen during pregnancy/birth through no one's fault I am confused about the pros of a midwife as I never really thought about what they do. We all know that general practitioners are generally pretty clueless about Spina bifida/hydrocephalus and they have more training and knowledge than a midwife/nurse or supposedly they do. Spina bifida in many cases is also not caught until after birth, which happened in my case. My parents never knew I had Spina bifida until the day I was born. I suppose it might be economical to have a home birth but you would end up going to the hospital anyway to have you and your child looked at by a doctor anyway. If a complication did arise how would a midwife handle that? Would the midwife get the mother and child to a hospital in time to be seen by a doctor?

For those who considered a midwife, what were some of the things that intrigued you about having a midwife? I am not meaning this in any sort of negative way, I am genuinely curious about the benefits of a midwife and what attracts a woman to the idea of a midwife. If I have offended anyone with my questions then I deeply apologize.

[LisaJoy]

I only know a little about this, but you are right about there being different types of midwifery certification and training. I think most midwives do not take high risk pregnancies, though, and since you have SB, I think you would automatically be high risk.

The exception might be a midwife nurse practitioner (nurse practitioners have advanced degrees) who is in a practice with regular OBs. MNPs usually deliver in a hospital setting I think.

[jellolegs23]

Thanks Lisa for your reply!

Yes, I suppose a midwife can have an advanced degree but how common is it?

I just want to clarify that I am not considering a midwife for when I become pregnant because of my high risk pregnancy with Spina bifida, my questions were for other women who were interested in the idea of a midwife. I was only mentioning myself as I am also a woman of a child-bearing age who wishes to have a child at some point.

[jveprek]

[QUOTE=jellolegs23;42474]Thanks Lisa for your reply!

Yes, I suppose a midwife can have an advanced degree but how common is it?

I just want to clarify that I am not considering a midwife for when I become pregnant because of my high risk pregnancy with Spina bifida, my questions were for other women who were interested in the idea of a midwife. I was only mentioning myself as I am also a woman of a child-bearing age who wishes to have a child at some point.[/QUOTE


I did not have a good experience at the hospital when I had my son, Conner. They were not respectful of my birth plan and tried to push me in to getting an epidural, though I refused. I only had a 7 hour labor with him until he was born, and they probably asked me 20 times if I wanted one, even though I wrote it in my birth plan I didn't. They pushed me to let family in to see him before I nursed him, then we ended up having problems nursing. It may not be related, but from what I have read, getting them to the breast first is very important, and they just wanted everyone gone, so they pushed for what worked for them, not what was best for us. When I had problems nursing, they encouraged me to just give him formula and not try. I didn't, and finally we worked things out and I was able to nurse him, but they were not great and supportive like they should have been. They kept encouraging me to send him to the nursery and let them give him formula, but I refused, and they didn't like that. Then, my breastfeeding bag I got sent home with, contained a bunch of formula samples. Nice. From my experience, they are very pro-induction and interventions. This, of course, leads to higher c-section rates. For me, with Madi, I wanted a home birth and midwife because I didn't want to be pushed in to things I didn't want. I had an easy labor and delivery, and I wanted to not have so much pressure/stress. Of course, I found out at 22 weeks during an ultrasound that she had SB and I had to switch to a specialst anyway, but I'm thankful for the amazing personal care I got from my midwife up until then. She took time to really talk to me, never rushed me out of the office, was always running on time, etc.... I never got that at the doctor's office with conner. At the specialist office, I got to see their midwife most of the time, and she was so amazing and encouraging. She knew I would need pitocing/and induction, but encouraged me to still go epidural-free and told me how to have them do the pit so that my body didn't get slammed with contractions. Thanks to her, I was able to have the birth I wanted, though it was at the hospital.


I would recommend watching The Business of Being Born by Ricky Lake, or reading Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born , as these are both great at talking about some of the options out there :)

[Lifeisgood]

I believe that some hospitals now have midwives on their staff...this way you get the best of both worlds!

[jveprek]

I believe that some hospitals now have midwives on their staff...this way you get the best of both worlds!

Yes, and birthing centers are popping up too!

[Jill]

The quickest answer is that OB's are surgeons and birth does not require a surgeon or really any medical intervention the vast majority of the time. I can't recommend watching the Business of Being Born highly enough, especially for Americans and Canadians with the skyrocketing c/s and intervention rates. It's not quite as bad here in Canada since we don't have the same ability to take legal action and our doctors are paid differently, but it's inching up there. MW's are specialists in normal pregnancy and birth. There is such a stigma to birth, so much fear, so many myths as to how a typical birth is supposed to be. There doesn't need to be so much fear and so much intervention. Our bodies just DO it.

My first birth was great. I had an epidural and I wished the second she was born that I had not had it. The nurses with me had led me to believe (based on it being my first birth and little else) that it would be hours and hours of labour. It wasn't. She came out pretty soon after I got the epidural and I didn't feel like I experienced birth at all. My second was awesome. All natural, less than 6 hours total, felt amazing. Just DH, a nurse and myself (the OB ran in and caught her). The nurse was a dork though and not at all helpful. For both, I had the same OB and she was wonderful through my pregnancies, but she wasn't on call for either births and wasn't there for them. It was kind of a let down.

I decided on a MW for King just so I had SOMEONE there with me that actually knew me. TBH, my MW experience was not great, but I acknowledge that this is not usual. The MW office that I got in with works in teams of 3, so I had 5 appointments in the first 4 months. 2 were messed up, and the other 3 I met each of my 3 MW's one at a time, so no real chance to get to know any of them. The third one I met was the one who told me about the screening that showed there was a chance King had SB. She brushed it off entirely and said it was nothing to worry about at all. She later set up the second u/s that would confirm it and again told me it was going to be fine. To say that I was unprepared for the diagnosis would be an understatement. :( I didn't hear from them again for over a month?? In that time, I went back to my OB who was phenomenal and she WAS there when Kingsley was born even though she wasn't on call. :) MW's are not well versed in 'the unplanned pregnancy'. That's when they pass off to OB's.

Also, MW doesn't mean homebirth. I was going to have a hospital birth. They just allow the home option.

[~Tara~]

Briefly...

I chose a MW because I wanted to do my own thing during birth. I didn't want dr/nurses telling me what I could and couldn't do. I didn't want to be confined to the bed if I felt like walking. Lying down if I felt like sitting.

Frankly, I don't trust doctors during the birthing process. Labor and birth is not a disease that needs treated or 'fixed'.

It seems the majority of MW inside hospitals are essentially doctors. Same mentality. I'm not saying *all* are that way, so if you had a MW in a hospital setting and it was a pleasant, non-intrusive experience, fabulous! I'm happy for you. :) But the for the majority, there's no difference.

Birthing centers aren't always much better. Again, they *can* be. They *can* be awesome. But I have just heard of far too many where their only difference from a hospital was a more home-like birthing room.

I've had all of mine at home. Some with a midwife, some not.

Midwives are trained, either through school or through mentorship (lay midwives) to handle a variety of emergencies. They carry oxygen, they carry pitocin and metheragine, they carry a plethora of herbal concoctions to aid in failure to progress, to treat hemorrhage. And have been trained how and when to use each one of them. Just as doctors have been trained to use their tools. Midwives, generally, are just less quick to use all they have in their arsenal. They are more intuitive. Responsive as opposed to reactive. Less likely to rush.

(looked back down quickly at previous responses, which I will come back to read shortly, I must ditto The Business of Being Born. They did a pretty decent job with that. The most important part is how it has reached so many. So many eyes have been opened by that video. People have been really receptive to it.)