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Natural Birth
So frustrated with MW office
I see an office 7 MW's. They rotate so that I meet each at least once before delivery. I go 40 minutes out of my way specifically to see a MW. I live just outside of Boston so 40 mins easily turns into an hour and half with traffic.
I was told today by the MW I saw that things are changing with the office and there might not always be MW coverage at the hospital where I would have to deliver. Meaning either an OB or a MW from the practice would be covering the hospital. This is not what I was told when I started going to the practice. She attempted to reassure me that it's really the nurses that do all the work and the MW/OB "catches" the baby. All fine and good but I want someone who will be supportive of my natural birth, who won't push me into things when labor is "taking too long".
I'm just about 33 weeks and thinking of changing offices. There is another practice and hospital that is even further but that I know is more supportive of natural birth and even has birthing tubs. (The hospital I currently plan to go to has one tub that they let you labor in but not birth and you're sh*t out of luck if someone is using it.) Am I overreacting or would you change offices?
I'm also wondering if maybe I should consider a home birth. Does anyone happen to live in MA that would recommend a home birth MW?
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Re: So frustrated with MW office
:butting into this post:
I did a bunch of searching today and found a few MW that do HB in the metro Boston area. I have no personal experience, but I think we are taking that route as well. We should compare notes!
I would change offices. My understanding of midwives (and I guess this might vary by practice) is that it isn't the nurses who primarily do the work- midwives come earlier in your labour and stay with you the whole time. I'm not really sure what the benefit of having a midwife would be if they only showed up at the last minute just to catch the baby and left the rest to the nurse... how is that different from having an OB?
IMHO, a homebirth sounds like a great idea in your situation, facing the possibility of driving up to two hours to get to the hospital (or so? if this new hospital is further away than the hospital that takes up to an hour and a half?). I had a homebirth and I have no regrets about that decision.
Good luck!
That happened at my office this pregnancy as well, they were short staffed and said there's a MW shortage right now so there weren't a lot of applicants out there. My first birth the MW was with me the whole time, her and the nurse never left the room (even though I told them repeatedly they could, ha) and it was nice on one hand, but on the other I felt like I couldn't get into my hypno stuff because of the chatting. They have also said they give extra attention to first time moms so there's no guarantee I would have had as much of her time and focus if another mom was laboring the same time as me this time around.
As it turned out DS was born at a time there was no MW on call so an OB I'd never met delivered him, but I literally got to L&D and started pushing so it was not a big deal. I had chatted in length with one of the MWs about the OBs in the practice and what to expect and she assured me they were very respectful of patients preferring MW care and would remain hands off, which was my experience. But if there are other factors concerning you or you're really not comfortable with their staffing there's no reason you can't change your plansI would not be happy with that situation, however I would want to know more about the OBs before I consider switching. Hopefully the OBs are more open to low intervention births if they are willing to work with midwives.
The office I go to has MWs and OBs and you choose which group you want to see. If you are a midwife patient and all is going well, it should be a midwife who delivers the baby. I was only at the hospital about 4 hours before DD was born and once we were in the L&D room the midwife did not leave until after DD was born. Not sure if part of that was because I was so far along when I arrived at the hospital or if that is standard procedure if she does not have other patients at that time.
This is NOT the cases with many CNM and hospital based practices unfortunately.
OP- where are you delivering? I was originally with a MW practice at Brighams and was told the same thing about catching the baby. For me- that was a deal breaker. If I wanted to birth with a bunch of nurses, I would have just hire an OB.
I switched to a homebirth MW with my first at 25 weeks and didn't look back. I personally do not think any of the hospitals in the Boston area are that NB friendly, although I would recommend the birth center attached to Mt. Auburn...at least for those who don't want to birth at home.
Feel free to contact me for more information about HBs in MA. I have had two homebirths now and know a lot of the HBMWs in the area.
This is a good place to start:
https://massmidwives.org/
My MW was Dina Friaze and she works with Joyce Kimball...and then they always have a third professional (not apprentice) MW at the births. Dina does not have a website, but I think Joyce might. They are both out of Northborough, but travel to the Boston area all the time.
My experiences were fantastics and I cannot say enough good things about my own MWs. Dina went above and beyond with me and I miss our appointments a lot now that I am done.
GL
Well to be transparent since you're from the area
I'm from Sharon and have been going to South Shore Women's Health in Weymouth and was planning to deliver at South Shore Hospital. I have heard that Jordan Hospital in Plymouth and Tobey Hospital in Wareham are natural birth friendly (have hypnobirth classes and do water births) but they're both close to an hour away without traffic.
Thanks so much for the link. It looks like Nancy Wainer might be the closest ad most experienced MW in my area. Do you know about her?
My mind never automatically went to home birth like it did with natural birth but I'm starting to warm up to the idea and even be a little excited but still nervous haha. I'll send you a PM with this since I'm responding a little late.