Midwife

Since we'd been planning this pregnancy for awhile I had lots of time to do research and prepare. I decided that I wanted to give birth with a midwife rather than an OB/GYN. I found a practice not far from us and they deliver at Stony Brook Hospital, also not too far from us. Midwives have a different sort of mentality about childbirth. Giving birth doesn't have to be a medical emergency. It is a natural occurance that women are supposed to do and have been able to do for years. Midwives have been attending births for much longer than OB's and have a more natural approach. They encourage the mother to move around and use alternative forms of pain relief, such as deep breathing, meditation, and bathing. They tend to use many fewer interventions than Dr's do. Meaning they have a much lower c-section rate, a lower episiotomy rate, a lower vacuum birth rate (it is just what it sounds like), they rarely use an epidural and my favorite thing is that they encourage the mother to try using different positions during labor rather than the traditional lying-on-your-back-with-legs-up position. That position is generally thought of as the best position for the doctor, whereas the best position for the mother is different. In my opinion, it should be about the woman giving birth, not so much the doctor. They say that squatting and being in a more upright position is better for the mother and gravity can definitely help move the labor along. The midwives have a more relaxed and natural approach to birth and they are totally qualified. They are very professional, they get their bachelors in nursing and then their masters degree in midwifery and they even wear white lab coats! A lot of people don't really know much about midwives and have this image of me giving birth in a hut with candles all around and crazy chanting going on, but that's not really how it's going to be. I'll be in a hospital, doctors will be nearby just in case there are complications and we need some sort of intervention. I know I don't really need to justify it, but so many people keep saying "are you SURE you want to JUST use a midwife? don't you want a DOCTOR there too, JUST IN CASE!" so I just feel like it's misunderstood and I need to explain. I don't feel any need to have a doctor instead of or in addition to a midwife. We went to a "Meet the Midwives" night so we could meet all the midwives in the practice and get a tour of the labor and delivery floors and I just wanted to make sure Tim was comfortable with everything and he said he felt great about it. Totally comfortable and confident with their abilities. There is the possibility of us getting any one of the midwives when I go into labor. We don't just get one that we see the whole time. It's a group practice so we'll see different ones along the way and whoever is on call when I go into labor will be the one to deliver our baby! So that's the plan.