Hello NH moms & moms-to-be,
I am very interested in having a midwife attend the birth of our 1st child and I've been on nhmidwives.org to get myself started with research.
So...my questions are,
-Who are you having attend?
-Are you delivering at home or in a center? Or hospital with midwife?
-Cost?/Any problems with insurance coverage?/Is a hospital with midwife more expensive than at a center, all other things being equal?
-If out of hospital, does your midwife have a relationship with a physician(s) to refer to in case of emergency?
TIA!
Re: please recommend your midwife
Hi!
We're on the Seacoast and we're going with Val Jaques at the Coastal Family Birth Retreat. She's amazing and is very encouraging a supportive of my desire to try for a VBAC. We had a midwife at Exeter Hospital and the one thing I will say is that midwives who practice with OBGYN's are bound by the OB's scope of practice and really don't have the autonomy to make their own decisions regarding your labor. We ended up with a really bad experience with our daughter who is 2. After trying and failing to refuse every intervention in the book I ended up with a c-section so I definitely would recommend talking to a midwife who isn't associated with a hospital along with a midwife who practices under an OB so that you can see the differences in their philosophies.
As far as insurance goes, the birth center we're using takes our insurance and has a sliding scale for patients that don't have insurance so I feel like they are doing their best to make a non-medicalized birth possible for anyone who wants one. All things being equal it is always more expensive to be at the hospital than to be at a birth center.
My midwife does have a relationship with several doctors in the area in case I would need to be transferred during my pregnancy and the birth center is 5 minutes from Exeter hospital in case of a true emergency during my labor.
I know there are a couple of other free standing birth centers here in NH and I would definitely encourage you to check them out! Hope this helps!!
Liz
I just relocated from Pennsylvania to the Rochester area. I am going to Garrison Women's Health Center in Dover (it's across from the Wentworth-Douglass Hospital). We just met one of the midwives yesterday. They seem amazing! I love it already. They have 4 midwives there (but 2 will be on maternity leave pretty soon to have their own bundles of joy) and then there are 4 OBs (i think ). Anyways, you can either choose ONLY midwives or ONLY Obs, or you can do both. Personally, i am going with only the midwives. Anyways, i've heard great things about them! (and relocating from so far away and not knowing anyone, wow! that means alot). I am giving birth in the Birth Center at the Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. Im planning on having a water birth. So they do that too
Everyone at Garrison is great! They answered all of my questions, were very in tune with everything, and more importantly they respect your values and ideas of birth and how you want to give birth. I would highly recommend them!
As far as insurance goes...they accept most insurances. Just call em up and ask, thats what i did! I know for sure they accept Atna (sp?) and Blue Cross, and the state health insurance. I know they accept many others too, so i would just call and ask.
Here is their website if you're interested:
https://www.gwhc.com/
This is who I went with as well. I ended up having a very long and and traumatic labor and delivery...3 of the 4 mw's and 2 of the 3 md's assisted me. They were all amazing. If it wasn't for their postive attitudes and patience my experience would have been much worse and would have most likely resulted in a c-section. I am so happy this is the group I went with and I am so glad I went with midwives over MD's (though the MD's in this practice are fantastic as well).
Edit: Just wanted to add that I believe there is a great birthing center close to New London. The MW's there were actually featured in The Business of Being Born.
This! The midwives at CMC are freaking incredible. Kerri, Dorice, Jamie, and Susan are all amazing. I've been so happy with my care!! Even though you rotate between 4 women it all still feels very personal...