Why We Are Using a Midwife

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One of the first things that people have said to me when I said I was using a midwife is "Why would you put yourself and your baby at risk like that?"  First of all, keep those thoughts to yourself.  It's none of your business how I choose to deliver my baby!  Secondly, I don't see this as an increased risk. 

Now the people who have said this to me thought I was going to have a home birth, which I'm not.  I will be delivering in the hospital, with my midwife.  If anything is to go wrong, if I need drugs or a c-section, I can switch to a doctor at any point.  I do feel more comfortable with this, especially since our house is 15 minutes from the hospital in good weather and this baby will be born in the middle of winter!

But tons of people have their babies at home and they turn out just fine!  Birth is a natural process, women have been doing it for thousands of years without the help of a hospital.  So it's really not anybody else's place to tell you where you should be having your baby!

So now that I've gotten that out of the way, why did I choose a midwife?

In our town, you see your family doctor for the first half of your pregnancy and then you are turned over to the baby doctors group.  This group is made up of at least 5 local doctors.  They try to get you to see as many of them as possible, but on the day that you go into labour, you will get whichever one is on call.  Plus, I'm pretty sure if there's an on call switch in the middle of labour, your doctor will change.  (Don't quote me on that.)  With a midwife, I have 2 midwives, I will build a relationship with both of them prior to delivery and one of them will be there for my entire labour and delivery.

I'm a pretty quiet person.  I know that I don't want a c-section if at all possible.  If it's what is safest for me and baby that's fine, but I don't want to be pressured into it because it would speed along the process.  I also don't want to be pressured into an epidural.  So I just feel more comfortable with a midwife who I know I will be building a relationship and a comfort level with, who will know me, and my "plans" for birth ahead of time.

I know that this might not go to plan.  I might need a c-section.  But I want to at least try to do things my way.  I know that the doctor's group is full of incredibly talented doctors, but giving birth is a super personal process and everybody has their own ideas of what is important to them and how they want it to go.

I also have found my midwife to be very thorough.  Instead of waiting for me to ask questions, she will bring up the things that I should know for that stage of pregnancy.  Midwives are educated in this.  All they do is babies, and that's why I completely trust them with mine.