Midwife

rkmistry

My husband and I agreed to go the route of using a midwife for my pregnancy with the condition that it would be a hospital birth and there is a doctor available if needed.  My insurance will only cover certified nurse midwives who are supervised by an OB.  They provided me the contact for three clinics who are in network who have midwives on staff and are 100% covered by my plan.

Both my husband and I had some expectations for midwives but after meeting with two, we're a little weary of the direction we're heading by choosing a midwife.

 1. We thought midwives do home visits post birth, unlike an OB.  Both the midwives we have interviewed only see patients at the office.

2. We thought with a midwife, we would ensure that she would be attendance during labour, unlike an OB.  Both the midwives we interviewed only attends a labour if they're on call. 

This is our first pregnancy so obviously we're in that honeymoon period with high hopes.  We wanted a more personalised experience with someone we would truly grow to trust; not that we wouldn't trust an OB, but we thought a midwife would be more involved.  The one question we failed to ask was how their care would differ from an OB.

My husband suggested we look at clinics out of network who have midwives on staff (who are only 70% covered by my plan).  The hope would be that the above two expectations could be met.  Before I spend the time interviewing more midwives, I wanted to get other opinions as to whether or not this could be found by midwives who work in an OB office or if these are expectations that can only be satisfied with midwives that only do home births.

I truly appreciate any information provided and any suggestions for midwives.

dleigh2020

I think the experience you described with the midwives you met with is typical in an OB office.
I had both boys using a midwife. I just saw all the midwives in the practice throughout pregnancy. The one on call was who delivered. I was familiar with all the midwives since I had seen them all throughout my pregnancy so it wasn't a big deal who was on call. i knew them all. No home visit after the baby was born. You won't find that using a midwife as a part of an OB practice as far as I know.
I felt like we had a lot of personalized time during labor and delivery. My midwife checked in regularly until I was ready to push. She was with me from start to finish when pushing. Overall I was very pleased with my experience.

keg

I agree with pp in that your experience is quite typical for midwives that practice in a hospital setting.  I know you are looking at midwives, but I do want to highly recommend someone that would fit #2 in your list.  Dr. Tate is a solo practice OB that delivers at Emory Midtown.  You see him for appointments (he does has a nurse practitioner that will do some office visits, but she doesn't deliver) and he delivers your baby.   The only situations where he doesn't deliver you is if for some reason he doesn't make it to the hospital in time which doesn't happen very often!  He has a very low c-section rate and is a huge supporter of vaginal births after sections, which is unfortunately rare in this town.  He is comfortable doing a lot of things other OBs won't do, like deliver multiples and/or breech babies vaginally.  Overall, he's a great guy and I felt that I had the best chances for the birth I wanted with him.  

yellowtulips80

Have you looked into a doula?

frlcb

I had my dd with Intown Midwifery and had a great experience. It is all midwifery led, so you will have a midwife at your delivery, and they have a fantastic backup OB who only comes in if you have an issue. They do not follow up with you at home however. Are you from another country by any chance? I only ask because I had my son in the UK and the midwives there do follow up at home but that is not the case here, unless you have a HB. I would highly suggest hiring a doula.

rkmistry

Thanks so much for all the advice. I didn't consider a doula, but I did some research and think we'll make some inquiries around the halfway mark. This might be a more cost effective option than going out of network on my insurance.

My husband and I discussed it and think we'll stick with a midwife that is 100 covered by my insurance for now. If after 2 months or so we're not comfortable then we'll look at other options.

And yes, my husband and I moved here from overseas where typically you only work with a midwife during your pregnancy unless you're high risk and they make two home visits after the baby is born.