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Midwife practice in NoVa (Falls Church) area?
I have a friend in Falls Church that is interested in going the midwife route, she's barely even TTC so I don't think she's decided on a hosptial vs. home birth, but she'd like to know her options. I used Midwifery Care Associates in Rockville and loved my experience, but they only deliver at Shady Grove in MD.
Can you ladies give me your recs that I can pass along to her?
TIA!
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Re: Midwife practice in NoVa (Falls Church) area?
I'm currently with Birth Care in Alexandria - it's a group CNM practice with a birth center: about 2/3 of patients do home births & 1/3 use the birth center. They don't do hospital deliveries so they would transfer you over to INOVA Alexandria if needed.
The NOVA Birth Center is out in Chantilly and is beautiful! It's a pair of CPMs with a ton of experience. They do home births & birth center births.
Physicians & Midwives is a large (20!) group midwife & OB practice that delivers in-hospital, INOVA Alexandria I think. You don't a choice in who's on call when you go into labor, so could be an OB or a midwife.
pp has provided all the BC options in NoVA that would be accessible to Falls Church. There is also Loudoun County Midwives, but they are pretty far and don't do HBs.
if she's interested in HB only MWs, i'll recommend Tammi McKinley, CPM. she's hella awesome! experienced with all kinds of births, including vbac, breech and multiples. she's based in arlington, near 7 corners, so not far from falls church. she holds appointments at her home but comes to you for birth. she is super gentle, totally subscribes to the midwifery model of care and very supportive of women's rights concerning their pregnancies and their bodies. https://novamidwife.org/
there is another excellent HB MW, but i hear she is not taking clients right now - Marilee Pinkleton. she is also based in Arlington, but i think she comes to you for all appointments. https://www.womansway.net/TLCBirth/
if your friend is considering HB MWs, she should ensure the MW is licensed in VA. there is one i know of who is actively working in VA but who is not licensed here.
i'm happy to share my professional opinion on the area HB MWs if she would like to contact me. i'd rather not share on a public message board! but she can email me at Lindsey AT SunflowersHealingandWellness DOT com.
Thanks ladies - are there any other options for midwives that deliver at the hospital, or is it just that large practice?
I'm really not familiar with birth centers - how are they similar/different from a hospital? in general, how would they handle it if something came up during delivery that necessitated an emergency intervention for the mom or the baby during labor or post-delivery?
there is one other, at Virginia Hospital Center. Karen King, i think is her name. she is with arlington women's center.
i am unsure whether she can request to only be seen by Karen. there are OBs at this practice too.
Yes. I've seen Karen many times and like her a lot. The OB's are great there too.
A PP mentioned Loudan County Midwives - they deliver at the Birthing Inn at Loudan INOVA. It was a bit far for me so I didn't follow up with them.
So a birth center is a place where woman can go to give birth and it's usually staffed by midwives, equipped with tons of relaxation equipment because the clients are planning to go natural. Generally, only low-risk patients are accepted because they are not equipped to do c-sections or administer epidurals but they are trained & equipped for the most common issues in low-risk patients - like tearing, excessive bleeding, infant resuscitation, etc. The midwives at Birth Care are Certified Nurse Midwives, so they have the full training of a normal nurse you find in a hospital plus an extra midwifery degree that focuses on maternal & infant care. If some one needed drugs or a c-section, then she would have to transfer to the hospital from the birth center.
Forgot to mention another option: the DC Birth Center in NE is a group midwife practice that delivers at their own birth center and in-hospital. I had 2 appointments there and it wasn't really for me, but it's a great option for some one who wants midwifery care but may be a little more high risk than what the birth-center only midwives will accept. They accept VBAC patients.
I went to Physicians & Midwives. Actually, their standard is there is an OB and a MW on call at all times. I believe there is a MW always at the hospital. For low risk, uncomplicated pregnancies the default is a MW to deliver the baby. I had an awesome MW that allowed me to push for over 3 hours until I delivered my baby. Even our doula was so impressed with how great our MW was. She was by my side pretty much the whole time I was pushing.
They do deliver at INOVA Alexandria.
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Thanks for this - I think my friend liked the idea of a midwife but with the reassurance of being in a hospital if something cropped up, or if she decides she wants meds at some point. At least for me, it would have been scary to commit to going med-free without knowing what labor was like - even during labor it was reassuring that I had the option of meds even though I didn't end up using them.