I did OB for DD1. Not very personable and a terrible birthing experience. I pushed for FIVE hours - FIVE! I wanted to throat punch every person in the room, except DH, because he also wanted to throat punch all of them. I felt like I was wasting their time because I couldn't make DD come out any faster. They convinced me to do an epi, which sucked. But I vowed to do things differently next time. So I switched to MW and birth center for DD2. She was born early (36w4d) so I had to deliever at the hospital instead of the birth center, but the experience was perfect. Med-free, crazy fast, amazing staff. Truly the birth of my dreams!
I chose my doctor because he's a fantastic surgeon and good at what he does. He doesn't sugar coat and is blunt and honest . His nurse practitioner is super too. I'd rather have somebody that has more education so they can potentially save my life and or the life of my future child. I work for the ob and I have seen lives saved because of his experience so I'll take that over a "personal touch". I think my reasoning for this is mainly because I have seen and know what can go wrong.With my ob I have a piece of mind knowing we will be taken care of. To each their own but I'm not big on birth plans for the most part either as sometimes people focus so much on the plan ( and only sticking to the "plan" " they disregard the fact that their plan is not best for baby in some situations. .. Sorry about the long reply
I chose my doctor because he's a fantastic surgeon and good at what he does. He doesn't sugar coat and is blunt and honest . His nurse practitioner is super too. I'd rather have somebody that has more education so they can potentially save my life and or the life of my future child. I work for the ob and I have seen lives saved because of his experience so I'll take that over a "personal touch". I think my reasoning for this is mainly because I have seen and know what can go wrong.With my ob I have a piece of mind knowing we will be taken care of. To each their own but I'm not big on birth plans for the most part either as sometimes people focus so much on the plan ( and only sticking to the "plan" " they disregard the fact that their plan is not best for baby in some situations. .. Sorry about the long reply
I agree with you about the birth plans. I think it is fine to have an idea of what you would like, but you need to stay flexible because a lot of the time things don't go exactly to plan!
As for the part about the doctor and NP having more knowledge, I have to (kind of) disagree. On one hand, yes, they have more surgical and clinical knowledge, and for high-risk pregnancies are a MUST, but if you have a low-risk pregnancy, I would have to say a midwife is the way to go. In reality, they have more experience with delivering and are very educated in their field. A midwife has so much first hand knowledge about pregnancy and childbirth, and that "personal touch" goes a long way. I guess I'm not really disagreeing, just saying that I do believe that midwives are worth their salt for every day, low-risk pregnancies. Make sense?
Where do OB's and midwives overlap? I know nothing about midwives. Like for instance I hear people say that their midwife was delivering their baby until they ended up with a c-section. Does the midwife go find a doctor when she's concerned about something and ask their opinion? Or does a doctor preside over the midwife and decide when it's necessary to intervene? Who orders the c-section? My first appointment is with an OB.
@ashdawn24 In the U.S., I'm not sure that midwives are more experienced than OB's. Where I live, there are many more OB's than midwives. Most babies seem to be delivered by an Obstetrician. The hospitals around here seem to have their OB's scheduled delivering babies at least 3 days per week and then seeing patients the other two, with a nurse practitioner or another OB in their practice filling in when they're at the hospital.
As far as I know OB's have more education and more hurdles to clear like more exams, getting matched to a good residency and getting a fellowship or whatever. They go to college for four years, then go to medical school for four years, then have a one year internal medicine residency, then do a two or three year specialty OB/GYN residency, then some go even further and do a fellowship that's a year or two years to further specialize. So not including undergrad, OB's spend 8-10 years getting their education before they're really practicing independently.........
I had MW with my DD at a birthing center and I totally plan on doing that this go-around as well. Key things I wanted - I didn't want 20 million people in the room with me, and it ended up being just me, DH, the MW, and the nurse. I didn't want to be stuck in a hospital being poked and prodded at every freaking hour of the day, at the birthing center we went home after maybe 6 hrs? I also didn't want to feel like I was going to have to fight for a med-free birth the way I wanted it. I wanted to go somewhere where I say, "I'm doing Hypnobabies", and they say "ok" and know what that is and understand how to work with me. My biggest issue, was I wanted to push when the baby was ready and deliver when she was ready. I didn't want to get stuck with her crowning and get the "stop pushing, the dr isn't here yet." At our center, you are that MWs only patient, so she is always there.
I am very a much a believer in there being a time and a place for everything. I wanted to go as far as possible with a med-free birth until she was either born or we needed to transfer due to medical reasons. The transferring hospital was less than 5 min away, and the MWs are very much trained to handle emergencies, and more importantly, when to recognize signs that the birth isn't going right.
Biggest differences between MWs and OBs: MWs are nurses, some are certified (CMWs) and some are not. States vary on how and who can practice. Some hospitals allow MWs, some not. OBs are trained as surgeons (think more of GYN operations) then as OB care. In the office I went to for regular gyn care, I always had to wait forever in the waiting room, forever in the check up room, and then a super fast visit with a "I'm just talking to you during your exam so this isn't weird, but as soon as we're done, I'm out". When I started going to my MWs, they came out and got me from the waiting room after hardly any wait, they did all the "medical assistant" type stuff, the entire check up, and then they would make sure everything was ok, did I have any questions? I know we sat and talked at least for 45 min at one of my appts.
In regards to a doula - we did not hire one. My husband went to all of my birthing classes with me, so I felt like he knew what exactly needed to happen when and how to help me. He wasn't the type of guy who was going to be "above the waist only". Since I was going to a birthing center with MWs, I also didn't feel the need to have an advocate there to help fight for a med-free birth or at least to help me decline interventions as the MWs weren't going to ask me about them.
My one piece of advice for anyone who isn't planning on going med-free - I STRONGLY recommend looking into med-free methods anyways. There are a lot of women out there who the epidurals just don't work on, or only work on half, or they don't have time. While it's not your desired birth, having a little "med-free" research and back up plan really won't hurt.
BFP 5.21.12 ~~ Born 1.28.13 BFP 8.14.15 ~~ Due 4.22.16
@TrishGbb I used a midwife with DS but ended up with a c-section. Any problems that arose the mw would call the OB (the practice had 3 midwifes and an OB). The mw was amazing as I had a long and difficult labor and she stayed with me through the c-section.
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
My first appt is with an ob. But I plan to use a MW at a birthing center. I just figured I'd see my ob first to make sure everything seems all good. I can't see my regular gyn BC she's not an MD, so I'm already annoyed by that. Also, she has 'retired' from delivering babies so there is no chance she would be at the delivery. I also don't want to have my baby in the city where my ob office is.
All of that combined with not wanting lots of interventions, tests, poking and prodding during and after l&d makes me want the birthing center. I want to know that I can say I want this and don't want that and they will back me up as long as its safe for baby. And also to be able to go home when I feel ready, not when the Dr decides.
I do worry about the option of pain meds. My first I had completely natural, waterbirth, in a hospital (the beginning a MW from the practice attended then the Dr came on call so they kind of switched)..but I had all intentions of an epi or anything else to help with pain. I just didn't ask or feel I needed it until I was almost done and the MW said it wouldn't work at that point. So I am afraid I'll want something this time.
I also tore a lot with my first and worry about that. So I guess I need to have my list of questions to ask the MW at my tour of the birthing center. But I think that's the route we will go as long as I have no risks.
With DS, I was really unaware of the choices available to me. I was 21, and I didn't do my research as well as I should have, so I didn't consider waterbirth, homebirth, midwives, anything like that. I went with your run-of-the-mill, routine, in-hospital birth. My OB was on vacation? I think? I didn't even know the doc who delivered my son. I loved my first birth experience, but I definitely want something a little more intimate and personal this time. I'd like to actually know the name of the person delivering this baby. I've also moved, so i'll be using a different practice entirely. They have midwives and OB's on staff, and their birth center is in a hospital so I'll have medical attention readily available if necessary!
I'm Dutch and we only have midwives and gynocologists. Dutch midwives are properly trained medical proffessionals and you're with one unless something goes wrong or you're high-risk, in which case you get referred to a gynocologist.
The Dutch are big on home births, but I seriously don't see the appeal. If anything goes wrong, I'd much rather already be at the hospital. I'd probably have a hospital birth even if I wanted a home birth, though, because I'm pretty heavy.
For my son, I had an OB the entire pregnancy. But, as he wasn't on call when I went into labor, a midwife was actually who helped me deliver. She was lovely, and very calming (though I fully admit to yelling at her during my final push). I have an OB this time as well, mainly because I prefer them and partially because I'm high risk. I have nothing against midwives for delivery, I think they can be (and most are) lovely choices for a lot of women.
I'll be going with an OB, mostly because I'm probably having another c-section (we'll discuss it at my first visit in 2 weeks). I had OB's for my last two and loved it. My current OB (who I LOVE) is retiring in December and he won't be around for the delivery so I decided to switch doctors now, which I'm not thrilled about but, what am I going to do?
At the end of the day, I like the idea of being in a hospital with doctors and nurses in case something goes wrong (God forbid). For me, it's too big of an event to have anywhere else. However, if midwives are for you, I say go for it!
Re: Midwife or OB
My first appointment is with an OB.
I am very a much a believer in there being a time and a place for everything. I wanted to go as far as possible with a med-free birth until she was either born or we needed to transfer due to medical reasons. The transferring hospital was less than 5 min away, and the MWs are very much trained to handle emergencies, and more importantly, when to recognize signs that the birth isn't going right.
Biggest differences between MWs and OBs:
MWs are nurses, some are certified (CMWs) and some are not. States vary on how and who can practice. Some hospitals allow MWs, some not. OBs are trained as surgeons (think more of GYN operations) then as OB care. In the office I went to for regular gyn care, I always had to wait forever in the waiting room, forever in the check up room, and then a super fast visit with a "I'm just talking to you during your exam so this isn't weird, but as soon as we're done, I'm out". When I started going to my MWs, they came out and got me from the waiting room after hardly any wait, they did all the "medical assistant" type stuff, the entire check up, and then they would make sure everything was ok, did I have any questions? I know we sat and talked at least for 45 min at one of my appts.
In regards to a doula - we did not hire one. My husband went to all of my birthing classes with me, so I felt like he knew what exactly needed to happen when and how to help me. He wasn't the type of guy who was going to be "above the waist only". Since I was going to a birthing center with MWs, I also didn't feel the need to have an advocate there to help fight for a med-free birth or at least to help me decline interventions as the MWs weren't going to ask me about them.
My one piece of advice for anyone who isn't planning on going med-free - I STRONGLY recommend looking into med-free methods anyways. There are a lot of women out there who the epidurals just don't work on, or only work on half, or they don't have time. While it's not your desired birth, having a little "med-free" research and back up plan really won't hurt.
BFP 8.14.15 ~~ Due 4.22.16
All of that combined with not wanting lots of interventions, tests, poking and prodding during and after l&d makes me want the birthing center. I want to know that I can say I want this and don't want that and they will back me up as long as its safe for baby. And also to be able to go home when I feel ready, not when the Dr decides.
I do worry about the option of pain meds. My first I had completely natural, waterbirth, in a hospital (the beginning a MW from the practice attended then the Dr came on call so they kind of switched)..but I had all intentions of an epi or anything else to help with pain. I just didn't ask or feel I needed it until I was almost done and the MW said it wouldn't work at that point. So I am afraid I'll want something this time.
I also tore a lot with my first and worry about that. So I guess I need to have my list of questions to ask the MW at my tour of the birthing center. But I think that's the route we will go as long as I have no risks.
Not everyone can breastfeed - Mammary Hypoplasia/Insufficient Glandular Tissue Awareness