Midwives

[Street Pharmacist]

For anyone out there either expecting or looking to have a child, I want to shed some light on midwives.

We just celebrated the birth of a little baby boy on Monday. It was a typical birth story in terms of healthy pregnancy, small problems. The labor was quick, but he got stuck and an emergency Cesarean Section was required. The nurses and obstetrician were great. What I wanted to talk about is the midwife.

I am a pharmacist and my wife is a nursing student. As such, we have fairly strong grounding in evidence based medicine. During my wife's rotation, she got to follow a midwife around for a couple weeks. She was so impressed that she convinced me that it would be a good idea to go with a midwife, as we were planning on being pregnant soon. To be frank, I had no real good or bad feeling towards the idea as I really didn't know anything about midwifery. I assumed it meant a home birth and herbal teas, and I had no interest in that. We were fortunate to get pregnant a week and a half after deciding to start trying, so off we went to meet our midwife.

It was a great experience. I am a very practical person who does not do things simply to be different. The best party of the whole journey, was choice. Every intervention, from tests to induction options if late to circumcision, etc. were discussed in in great detail and objective terms, with the decisions going to us. She often recommended both natural and conventional approaches for common issues. For common interventions, like genetic tests, erythromycin ointment eye swan, etc. the choice was given to us. Another great part was having the midwife as your partner throughout the ENTIRE process. She was there obviously for the appointments leading up to the birth, at our house when labor started to ensure comfort at home until the hospital was necessary, at the bedside in the hospital helping my wife and I through the traumatic experience that is labor, beside us when she had to consult the obstetrician, with us helping make those decisions, with my wife in recovery to help mommy bond with baby and latch on to start lactation, and she visited us in recovery to do all the tests to ensure baby was healthy. The next day she visited us in the hospital room to check on mommy's and baby's progress, and discussed baby care and what to expect over the next few days. We got to leave the hospital early, as she had the power to discharge us, and she was the one who would follow up at or house to ensure things went well. She even removed the staples from my wife's incision today, at home, in our bed. We have two more visits to monitor baby's progress, then we are on our own.

During all this time, we could call with questions during the day, email, text or even page during off hours for emergencies. Visits were 45min each and were every 4 weeks, 2 weeks and every week as we got closer.

If you ever have the opportunity to use a midwife, I would jump at the chance. As a caveat of course, I'm sure there are less great midwives out there and some bad experiences. There are also unlicensed ones, which I'm sure is a scary prospect. I just don't think people realize this awesome service is available and covered in most provinces by provincial healthcare.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by fotze

You can stay away from the naturopath baloney. But having a midwife is having a personal birth expert along side of you every step of the way....for free. Looking back, you would have to be an idiot not to get one. Its like using realtor to buy a house. Plus they actually seem to give a crap.

Agreed. And our midwife gave us that option, but also others. I do not subscribe to the "its natural, therefore good" theory, but that option is available for those who do

[Northendzone]

My wife looked into this when our first was born. Me went to some birthing seminar ona beautiful Saturday and as I recall you had o pay for this service in Alberta.

[Ryan Coke]

They started covering it in alberta about 3 years ago. And I would echo the support, I have become a huge fan.

Like the OP, I am a total science guy and was skeptical of the 'new age' midwifery. I found my concerns were totally incorrect. They had extensive science and data based knowledge, and expertise in the pregnancy and birthing process. We used one again for our second without hesitation.

We had planned a hospital birth with a midwife, but my wife went very fast and when the midwife arrived she suggested we have the baby at home. Ended up being fantastic, baby and Mom were healthy, and we didn't set foot inside a hospital. But I also liked the fact that I know many people who wanted home births but that didn't happen---the midwives won't hesitate to get you to the hospital if they have any concerns with how things are progressing. They are not hung up on trying to do it at home, and are in no way counter to mainstream medicine.

My only caution is that you have to get your name in as soon as you think you might be pregnant...now that it is covered by Alberta health it is difficult to get one. But if you can use a midwife, I would definitely recommend it.

[Street Pharmacist]

Not one person I knew, had any idea what a midwife really did these days. Mostly people assumed we were having a home birth.

[You Need a Thneed]

Its only been a year or so that they've been covered.

It's definately good to have someone else there, other than the parents and the medical staff. A trained midwife would be great. We didn't have a midwife for either of our kids. For our first, my wife's sister was with us, and for our second, my wife had a good friend with us who had 5 kids of her own and had also been in the delivery room for other friends. Both times were great just having someone else to get cups of water, or whatever.


I'd definately recommend having an additional person there, a good friend, a doola, or a midwife. Make use of the resources provided.

[Ryan Coke]

No that it matters, but my daughter is 3 and change, and they started covering just prior to her birth. We paid for some of the initial visits, but AHC started covering prior to her birth in April so most of our costs ended up covered.

I certainly agree with support from whoever, but to put a midwife at the same level as a good friend or doola is selling them short IMO. They are very well trained in childbirth, and generally free up doctors unless things are really going sideways. And again, i am speaking as someone who was highly skeptical before my experiences.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Its only been a year or so that they've been covered.

It's definately good to have someone else there, other than the parents and the medical staff. A trained midwife would be great. We didn't have a midwife for either of our kids. For our first, my wife's sister was with us, and for our second, my wife had a good friend with us who had 5 kids of her own and had also been in the delivery room for other friends. Both times were great just having someone else to get cups of water, or whatever.


I'd definately recommend having an additional person there, a good friend, a doola, or a midwife. Make use of the resources provided.

For me it was all the stuff before and after that made the difference. All your prenatal and postpartum appointments, including hospital admission/discharge privileges

[4X4]

We had our daughter last november, and now I wish we would have had a midwife. I thought exactly what SP said in post #6 - that midwives were for home births. I had no idea it was more like using a realtor for a home sale, as fotze puts it.
The whole process was relatively problem free, but there were a couple of times that a midwife would have been really nice. Post partum didn't go so well because my gf has a certain medical condition. Basically, it would have been extremely helpful to have "professional advice" during PP and before delivery. The obsetrician was really nice and all, but in the grand scheme of things, we were just another appointment for him, and as he always had another appointment waiting, we never really got to sit there and pick his brain about things. And whenever we had a question pop into our head, the only place we could really ask it was on the internet. And that's just a terrible place for a pregnant woman to be asking questions because you'll always get conflicting answers, and it just makes a nervous woman even more nervous.
And asking friends that have kids questions was just as useless. People can only answer based on their own experience, so what good is that? If you can ask someone who has "been through it" dozens of times it really would have been nice.
And just try asking your mom a question about pregnancy. You'll get an answer relevant to the 70s.

[Cheese]

My son and his wife just had a baby in June and they also share your love for midwifery. Great experience for them.

[albertGQ]

My second son is 16 months and we used a midwife so it's been covered much longer than that. Our first son was a hospital birth and my wife hated it. She loved our home birth much better and everytime one of our friends gets pregnant, she highly recommends it. No one has listened yet though as everyone is still skeptical.
But if she was going to have a mother birth, she's choose a midwife again. She's the perfect person to ask as she's experienced both.

[Bigtime]

Hospital for our first child, did not go well at all for my wife. So the second time around we were able to get a midwife, however due to reasons I cannot go into here they pretty much told us they would no longer be at our service 3 WEEKS before the due date.

We scrambled and got back to the doctor seeing my wife before we switched to this midwife group, and the hospital delivery at Foothills was nothing short of an amazing experience. Night and day from our previous experience. All the staff there deserve the highest praise, they were amazing.

We are still thinking of any options we may have (legal or otherwise) in regards to manner in which this midwife group treated us.

[puckluck2]

I have a friend who is a midwife, but he's man. I'd hate to be called a midwife.

[puffnstuff]

There is also something called a 'doula' that assists with pregnancy, similar to a midwife, just a different name (perhaps a different focus as well)

[kermitology]

Interesting topic to me as I guess I can break the news here that I'm expecting my first child in January.

My wife gave me the overview of midwifery and I was immediately supportive of it. I've been at our first two appointments and really enjoyed the experience so far. My wife doesn't deal with change very well, so I find it important that we have people we know have a relationship with my wife and know what her birth plan is and preferences for the experience are should things not go according to plan.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by fotze

Your wife was a momzilla wasn't she.

Despite my heavy bias towards her, no. It was nothing like that.

Suffice it to say that even the grandparents on both sides are incredibly upset about what happened, one of whom happens to be a lawyer.

[tete]

Originally Posted by puffnstuff

There is also something called a 'doula' that assists with pregnancy, similar to a midwife, just a different name (perhaps a different focus as well)

Doulas are different - they are birth support workers, versus midwives who are medical professionals. Doulas can't deliver the baby, administer medications, give medical advice, etc, but they can be invaluable in providing support during labour and delivery. I loved having a doula for my birth, she helped keep me focused through the pain.

We didn't have a midwife with our first child - I was ambivalent to the idea, and my husband didn't really care for the idea. In the end, since I was due around Christmas, it was likely no group would have taken me and my care would have been transferred when I ended up with gestational hypertension four days before she was born. A ton of my friends have used midwives (I also have four friends who are doulas) and considering my very short labour and delivery the first time, I'd consider it if we have a second just to have someone skilled in a homebirth, in case I didn't make it to the hospital in time.

Bigtime, sounds like your experience was terrible, goes to show that there are bad professionals everywhere.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Interesting topic to me as I guess I can break the news here that I'm expecting my first child in January.

My wife gave me the overview of midwifery and I was immediately supportive of it. I've been at our first two appointments and really enjoyed the experience so far. My wife doesn't deal with change very well, so I find it important that we have people we know have a relationship with my wife and know what her birth plan is and preferences for the experience are should things not go according to plan.

Congrats man. Way too many people will offer advice, so I'll just say I hope your experience is as great as ours. I jokingly called the midwife a "mid-husband" as Sheree helped calm me down through the difficult parts when things turned a little ugly.

[MisterJoji]

Just my two cents but working at the University of Alberta Emergency Room for the last 9 years, we never used a midwife and never will. My viewpoint might be skewed in that I only see the really bad cases of home birthing, but I can't even count how many times I've seen a bad birth result in an anoxic brain injury or development of CP after a traumatic delivery. Don't get me wrong, there are tonnes of great midwives out there but what if you get a bad one? In the hospital you have a team of professionals looking after you, so if you have a bad doctor, you still have others there as "back up" for lack of a better term. If you have a bad midwife and complications develop, you'll have to wait at least a couple minutes for an EMS crew to show up. Those couple minutes are vital to the viability of a newborn. Also, you could have a great midwife but still have an unforseen complication that will need to be dealt with at the hospital anyways (i.e. C-section, neonatal resuscitation). With our first born he was in a difficult position with his cord wrapped around is shoulder and being compressed. He was already having decelerations before my wife was fully dilated. My wife had an OB, nurse, NP, neonatal resus team, and anesthesiologist looking after her at this point and THANK GOD they were all there. Luckily my son is a happy, healthy 3 year old, but I don't even want to think what could have happened if we were at home when those complication developed. I'm sure 99% of home births end up completely fine, but we just wanted all the health professionals and equipment on hand immediately, as we ended up being one of those 1% of births that had a serious complication.

Just some food for thought, given my personal/professional experiences.

[Zevo]

Midwives are great, as long as they are used in addition to a doctor and in a hospital setting for the actual birth. Giving birth at home with just a midwife is whole different ballgame. I have seen way too many births at the hospital that have complications that if they happened at home, probably wouldn't have been a happy outcome.

But when used in conjunction with western medicine, midwives are a fantastic option.