Why I chose a Midwife over an OB

This post goes out to my reader, C, who I promised to tell about my midwife experience.

I chose a midwife for the following reasons:

1. She'd be delivering my baby, not an OB whom I'd potentially never met

2. She'd be there during labor the whole time, not just to "catch" the baby when it comes out.

3. She did the water births...the OBs did not.

4. This particular Midwife came highly recommended by many people.

5. I knew I wanted to go as med-free as possible, and I knew that a Midwife would support that and tell me to buck up more than an OB would. Of course, when the time came, I didn't even think of asking for pain meds, so this didn't matter in the long run. But it could have!

Now...for my personal experience.

I saw this MW for exams and other things before zygote Colin came along. She really is quite fabulous. Some people say that MWs spend more time with their patients. I wouldn't say that's particularly true, although I don't have an OB from the same clinic to compare to. But the woman's busy, and she only has appointments 3 days per week, so I'm sure her schedule is packed. I can't blame her if she doesn't spend 30 min with me at every OB check. She's got other people to see.

She was kind, caring, gave me "alternative" approaches to making my labor go smoothly...some I didn't partake in (perineal massage, anyone?), some I did (I bought a book she recommended. It's called Birthing From Within. I didn't get a chance to finish it, so maybe I missed the boat on something in the book, because I wouldn't recommend it, as I'm not into creating and interpreting "birth art"). She always gave me the confidence that I was doing the right thing, that there was nothing to worry about, that everything was perfect.

As for the labor part...the poor lady arrived tired as heck since we woke her up at 2 a.m., the day of a big 8 a.m. meeting, I guess. A day when the OB doctor running the meeting said, "no water births on Saturday morning." Oops...well, we were done by 6. Hope she got some rest before the meeting! Anyway...she asked if I wanted some music, and I said I just wanted it to be quiet. While I was in the tub, she sat on a stool next to it and filled out some paperwork I think. I was having contractions, breathing through them just fine. I told her I was sorry for being boring, and she said she liked boring labors :). When the time came for pushing, she meant business. There was going to be no 2-hr push fest with this lady. I won't go into details, but what she did down there prevented any tearing. 

The only part I was disappointed in was that after we had Colin and she was done doing her repairs and we chatted for a short time, I didn't see her. Granted, she did have that meeting all day on Saturday, and the next day was Sunday, and on Monday when we went home she typically doesn't have office hours. Maybe it's for the best. I think if I would have seen her while we were in the hospital, I would've cried out of love for her.

Would I recommend a midwife? Hands down.

So C and anyone else who's thinking about it, get busy and find yourself a midwife! :)