anyone considering a midwife?

amy888

or a birthing center as opposed to a traditional hospital birth?  

dgsharon

I'm using a midwife group that delivers at morristown memorial hospital.  the hospital is natural birth friendly, they have all the good equipment.  birthing tubs, bars, balls, etc.  I've been super happy with my decision so far, since the midwives have had great bedside manner, and spent WAY more time with me than my ob/gyn used to.

amy888

would you mind revealing who the group is?  currently, i love my ob/gyn but she's only affiliated with JFK in edison but i would love to go the natural route and MM seems to have the best of both worlds.

dgsharon

The group is Avalon Midwives.  They have 2 offices, Morristown and West Caldwell.  I actually live not that far from JFK, but am traveling to Morristown for the better natural birth options.  I don't think that any of the hospitals in this area, JFK, Raritan Bay, etc, are very natural friendly.

amy888

i agree wholeheartedly.  my DH and i were talking this a.m.  morristown memorial seems like the best of both worlds, natual friendly but attached to a hospital in case anything goes wrong.  i was actually born at JFK but i'll probably opt for MM instead.

MrsDeHav

hi amy, 

i go to rwj obgyn in hamilton and see the midwives.  they are very friendly towards natural birth and an intervention-free delivery.  good luck! 

lindsayll

I delivered med-free at Morristown with Avalon (specifically Donna).  It was a great experience, and I can't say enough good things about both the hospital and the midwives. 

When we arrived at the hospital, they sent me right to the best birthing room with the big tub because they knew I was going natural.  The nurses were great, Donna was great, and they were awesome working with my husband and my doula. 

I didn't use the tub because I arrived at the hospital pretty much in transition and didn't really have enough time to need/want the tub.  They gave me the option to push in whatever position I wanted.  (Although the question was posed to me at the end of transition and I was so out of my head that I couldn't make a decision, so Donna made an executive decision and had me push on my side...which worked great because baby was out with just 15 minutes of pushing!)  We had lots of time with the baby before they started doing the usual new baby stuff, all of which was done in the room as close to me as possible.  And once we made the transition to recovery/postpartum, the baby's nurses and my nurses were all awesome, totally supportive of rooming in, breastfeeding, etc.

After all was said and done, my doula made the comment that my experience was about as close to a birth center delivery as you could hope for in a hospital setting.

Good luck!