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Natural Birth
preckles12
member
Chicago Ladies? Need midwife rec...
preckles12
member
Hi Ladies!
I am new here because I have recently made the decision to have a natural, med-free birth (I am 14 weeks). I am planning on switching from my current OB to a midwife group and would love to hear your experiences and recommendations for Chicago area midwives and the hospitals that they work with. I have heard that some hospitals have strict policies that will get in the way of a natural birth plan. Some of the ones that I have found are:
West Suburban Midwife Assoc
Swedish Covenant
Illinois Masonic
Northwestern Memorial Midwives
I am sure there are others but those were the major ones that I found. Any advice is much appreciated! I will probably post on the Chicago board as well but thought I would try here first.
Thank you!!!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Chicago Ladies? Need midwife rec...
Hi! I'm planning a HB, so you may not be interested in my MW who specifically deals with HBs. Her web site is Gentlebirthcare.com. Love her! There is another bumpie who delivered with her as well.
I also have a good friend who delivered her first at Rush Copley in Aurora. It's pretty far out there, but she had a great experience. She delivered in the birth center that's attached to the hospital. H&H 9 mos to you!
Definitely look into West Suburban, I have heard they are supposed to be wonderful! Also I think they do water births if that is something you are interested in.
I delivered my first at Swedish and will be there this time as well. I had a great experience both with the MWs and the hospital itself. They are very supportive of low intervention births. You can eat/drink as you please, they offer plenty of natural forms of pain relief including jacuzzi jet tubs in every room for labor (no water births), do not require IVs, and there are volunteer doulas available. The only disappointment this time around is they changed their policy on monitoring. When I delivered DD two years ago they only required 20min of continuous monitoring in triage and if everything looked good, they used the doppler the rest of the time and it could be used underwater, so I never had to get out of the bath. This time they are telling me that they require not only the triage monitoring, but then every two hours I have to be on the monitor for 20min. I'm thinking about signing a waiver and just doing the 20 minutes in triage though, we'll see. But overall, they are great! The hospital c-section rate is below national average (I think 25%) and the MWs' rate is between 13-16% depending on the year. I know several women who have delivered there and they all have had a positive experience.
As far as Northwestern goes, their c-section rate is higher and they seem to be more intervention minded, 'we like to keep things moving' as one OB told my friend. But the MWs have a better reputation for being more 'hands off'. My friend had two water births there and has nothing but good things to say about them. The tubs are first come first serve though and there are only two, so if you can't get one, then your only option is to labor in the shower. Whereas Swedish doesn't do water births, but you are guaranteed a tub to labor in.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions
UIC has a really great MW practice, too. They are very autonomous and I know people who've had great births there (I had a VBAC with them in 2010). I wouldn't recommend Northwestern at all, in all honestly.
Swedish, West Sub and UIC have the lowest c/s rates in the city.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)