I know there was a thread about it but it was more focused on midwives in Canada than US so I am opening this thread to see who chose midwives or obgyn here in teh US and why?
In my very lil town, people prefer midwives, doulas, water births, home births etc etc so I have a feeling that people are just more inclined towards it even if there is no specific reason.. it’s just a trend here now!
What would be the criteria to choose one of the above?
Also how did you pick your ob/midwife? Did you interview them? is this common?
and last but not least how was your experience with whatever you chose? would you do it any different next time or not?
I always knew if and when I had a baby I would go to an Ob/gyn.
I never considered water births,home births etc..maybe I was too paranoid.I wanted a doctor and I wanted the routine method and epidurals and any other medication to make it easy, and nothing too natural and also wanted to be very certain that in case anything went wrong I was in such a place and in care of such people who knew what to do with me and also the baby would have the best care available around.
(I am not saying that midwives are any less capable or those who decide to do water births,take any kind of risk...I just had this clear in my mind for myself what I wanted)
I changed my ob/gyn when I got pregnant.The main reason was the hospital affiliation.The older one was too far from my place.
Secondly and mainly,I was referred to my current ob/gyn by the reproductive endocrinologist (RE) I was seeing.I took their word for it as they highly recommended my current doctor.
She works in a group practice and during my prenatal visits I was seen by all the doctors and APRNs of that practice (that included all female and 1 male doctor)...I was highly satisfied with them.
Unfortunately my labor took an unexpected turn and the oncall had to do an emergency C-section.She was someone I had never seen before but at that moment it did not matter.
Had it all went accordingly,one of the doctors from the practice I had been going to was to come the next day.
I still see the same doctors for my regular gyn. visits and I wont change them the next time either.
So in a nut shell,I decided on my current doctor because she was recommended by the RE and secondly she was affiliated with the closest hospital to my house where I wanted to deliver.
Not that I have any experience in this but why would anyone want their baby delivered by anyone other than a qualified doctor? What if there’s a medical problem during the birth to the mother or the baby, wouldn’t you want to be in a hospital just to be safe?
^ what makes you think a midwife isn't a) a medical professional qualified to deliver babies, and b) only assists in homebirths?
many midwives have hospital privileges meaning they deliver your baby, fill out the paperwork, take care of you etc. IN THE HOSPITAL unless there are complications like you needing an emergency c-section then the OB - who is typically trained in emergency medicine - will take over. they also follow up with home visits afterwards too. that's the biggest draw for me for wanting a midwife, not to mention that they're available exclusively to me 24/7, unlike my OB whom i currently see once a month for 5 minutes. unfortunately, my hospital only has one group of midwives with privileges there and there are too many June babies in the GTA so i'm not hopeful of getting one :/
midwives offer the option of homebirths as one way of having a baby, not the only way.
A midwife is qualified…the difference is that it does not happen in a hospital setting. The reason why many women prefer going to a midwife is bacause they will not stuff them with medication to accelerate the birth and tend to be more understanding and naturalistic about the whole birthing process.
I went toan ob gyn but had a doula too who was at my house when laor began and was with me at the hospital all during labor even though I had intended to have an epidural all along and did! The experience was very good.
For me obgyn all the way, there are some reasons first one was I don't want to give birth at home it will be too messy, sorry to be blunt but you can smell blood all the time having a baby delivery is a messy work and I don't think I was able to handle that. Second nurses do take care of people really well especially its a first baby. They will treat you with extra love at hospital they usually take the baby feed them, change diapers and let you rest for a while and help you breast feed if you have problems.I loved the hospitals and nurses and ofcourse my doc.
my comments are solely based on my personal experience , I believe that birth at hospital is better in every way. My daughter had to be rushed to NICU right after birth and what my mom tells me that they nurses were literally running towards the NICU , even a second was so valuable at that time. So if due to any reason the baby needs such attention and facility then don't you think too much time would be wasted to rush baby to NICU. Offcourse it won't be possible to have NICU wali facilities at home. Hospital have all the necessary equipments , facilities & technical staff to cater with all sorts of situation and you simply can't have all of these at home.
girls NOT all midwives do home briths and it;'s not like someone wakes up one day and declares themselves as midwife, they go through proper school training etc.. usually there are birthing centers who have both mid wives and ob gyns and in case of complications the ob/gyn takes over! Rest assured, home births, water births etc are not the choices that I would even consider.. just not my cup of tea! just like clothes diapers are not :D (which would be a different thread)
I was giving examples of this whole holistic approach that people take and was wondering what makes them choose that and in fact Iw as noticing some desi girls leaning towards that idea.. however, looks like here mostly people consider obgyn.. very rightly so! If I had a choice I would take the doc too!just in case God forbid soemthing happens!
Wow at the idiotic comments regarding midwives… Peeps, educate ureselves rather than churning out twisted beleifs bout what a midwife is
gtg: ask at thehospital u register at to find outif they have any afflations with a midwivery service. My best bet would be, when in rome, do as the romans do. Drs are the main system of pregnancyand delivers in the US… I would go that route just so that i get all the info that is general. I would be too paranoid to sway away from the system.
I had midget ib europe where midwves are tje main source where pregnany and childbirth comes in, drs visit rarely… Even at childbirth a dr only comes if there is a 2nd opinion required…since they (midives ) ARE the system, i felt comfortable going that way. (erm it was the only way haha ).
And midwives do beleive in medication as well as surgery if needd. Jesus i cant believe half the stuff pplr writing out here. Like really!
as well, midwives DO NOT accept high risk pregnancies, including multiples, and the chances of a normal, healthy birth if you've had a normal, healthy pregnancy are high. that's probably why some people prefer to have home births.
my friend has had two of her three babies at home- the first one had to be hospital because she living in the US at the time and wasn't able to get a midwife. she even fell in the last few weeks of her pregnancy and her midwife rushed right over to examine her and take care of her and she delivered perfectly normally mA.
also, midwives are covered by OHIP in Canada. who wouldn't want access to a medical professional 24/7 for whenever/however long they need them throughout their pregnancy, including the delivery, and for up to 6 weeks in-home care afterwards?
In the UK most babies are delivered in hospital by midwives unless it's a c-section.
The doctor comes the next day just to check the baby is okay.
We don't usually have a choice of who our midwife will be...we are given who we are given....and 9/10 times we have never met the midwife who delivers our baby, until the day of the birth. The reason for this is that not all the midwives who you see at your antenatal checkups work on the labour ward.
Yes that does mean that you could end up with a miserable midwife but that rarely happens as most midwives are actually very nice.
We don't have the option to choose between a midwife or a ob/gyn. And we don't get the opportunity to interview/choose who our midwife will be!
I guess the UK system is very different from the US system...maybe because we don't pay for it privately like you guys in the US do?
So after reading all the comments I have realized that procedure is different in ever country. In countries like Pakistan , India , Bangladesh etc midwife is someone knows as “Dai”. These midwife were the only way of delivering babies for many many years and they still practice in villages of Pakistan. They are not qualified or trained professionally they just learn from other midwives. So for the people of Pakistan the concept of midwife can be quite misleading , disturbing and horrific. All of us from Pakistan & from other countries who responded to this thread gave comments with utmost good intentions (I assume) with the knowledge we have (which can be quite limited as compared to other people's knowledge)
Nobody comes here to receive such insulting remarks and comments like “idiotic”.
I prefer childbirth in a hospital with a midwife and a obgyn .. as we have both. Most of the time a midwife attending, the doc is called upon emergencies .. uncertainities or consultant. The docs are present at the end though when the time to push comes.
Diamond: my reply was not based on ure post. So dont feel the hurt :)
The OP asked specifically about midwives in the US... If u dont have exp then why give the wrong info? Especially when u (not u but a person) doesnt even know what a midwife is....
And lastly, midwife is not a dai. The closest thingwould be a doula
In the UK most babies are delivered in hospital by midwives unless it's a c-section.
The doctor comes the next day just to check the baby is okay.
We don't usually have a choice of who our midwife will be...we are given who we are given....and 9/10 times we have never met the midwife who delivers our baby, until the day of the birth. The reason for this is that not all the midwives who you see at your antenatal checkups work on the labour ward.
Yes that does mean that you could end up with a miserable midwife but that rarely happens as most midwives are actually very nice.
We don't have the option to choose between a midwife or a ob/gyn. And we don't get the opportunity to interview/choose who our midwife will be!
I guess the UK system is very different from the US system...maybe because we don't pay for it privately like you guys in the US do?
I went through a clinic that has all midwives and i loved my experience. The one who actually delivered my daughter was a midwife i had not met too often during my checks but she was awesome throughout the whole thing. MIdwives do not handle high risk cases so if someone were to get gestational diabetes, they would refer her to an ob/gyn. I went with midwives because i thought they would be more open to my way of handling things (the less intervention the better). I had this idea based solely on reading internet forums. After i gave birth,i had a 3rd degree tear which teh midwife couldnt sew, so she called an obgyn who luckily was a female and who was able to sew me up. I suppose if it happened to be a male ob on call, i would have been forced to get him to do my stitches.
The midwife couldnt sew up? The only thing a midwife cant do here is a c sec... I had a tear and a student midwife actually zipped me up with the help of a trained midwife .... I remember i kept telli g her to make sure she takes all the bandages and not leave them in lol. She was so insulted :d
as per my exprience...its better to see OBGYN,..my exprience wid the OBGYN has been good so far..people in uk n usa hv teh choice to deliver by OBGYN or by a MIDWIFE..but where i live there's only OBGYN,and i think its safe too for the baby and teh mother,cause if there's something serious occurs at teh time of birth there's a proper doctor,and equiptment to cope wid teh situation....
but why would anyone want their baby delivered by anyone other than a qualified doctor? What if there’s a medical problem during the birth to the mother or the baby, wouldn’t you want to be in a hospital just to be safe?