Midwife contemplation

In the midst of this whole new phase of my life, I have heard every version under the sun of child birth from various sources. The birthing "pool", "home" births, "natural" childbirth, Cesareans, 48 hour labours, induced labours, doulas, birth coaches, midwives, obstetricians, premature births, St.Paul's Hospital, BC Women's. I have a plethora of baby birthing info rattling around in my head.

Someone make it stop.

Decision making has never really been my strength. (some of you who think I'm stubborn or opinionated are probably rolling your eyes right now.....Mom?)

Well, I had heard all of these different things about Doulas & Midwives so I began to look into it myself. We knew one thing for certain between, us - we want the baby born in a hospital.

After speaking to so many different people, my question was - how would my experience be different if I were to have a midwife vs not?

It seems with a midwife, the amount of time spent in your visits leading up the birth is more and you are able to access them for things that may seem menial to bug a doctor with. Afterall, these people have decided to do nothing but deal with pregnant women and childbirth exclusively. It was all explained to me. I really like the fact that they are with you from the time you go into labour, until a few hours after your baby is delivered. They then do follow up visits to your home for the couple of weeks after. (a public health nurse does this if you don't have a midwife) I figured it would be nice to have someone who is an expert that follows us through the whole process and knows our concerns and wishes.

I have since heard a few skeptical comments from people who have asked their doctors, or people who are involved with doctor types. I'm not sure what the politics are, but there tends to be SOME opposition with certain doctors. My doctor - was very supportive of the whole concept and she is the best doctor ever.

So now Bill and I have officially been to two visits with our midwives (there are a small group of them that deal with you - we've met two of them so far) The care that I receive each time is really nice. They spend about 45 minutes talking to you. Do all the regular stuff like blood pressure etc. We heard the baby's hearbeat again - this time Bill heard it!

Next up...a blood glucose test to ensure I'm not at risk for gestational diabetes.

Jennifer