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July 9, 2009

How to hire the right midwife

Filed under: Pregnancy — Tags: , , , , , , — Jennifer @ 10:04 am

Pregnancy, what a special time for women.  Well, I guess aside from the sickness.But beyond that, the new baby coming is an exciting expectation.

Usually, for most women, how to have the baby isn’t a big question.  Because most women will go the standard route of a medical procedure involving hospitals, drugs, and doctors.

But for a few women, they do have an alternative.  That alternative is hiring a midwife and doing it the natural way.  And it is that alternative I am going to share from my experience as a San Diego midwife.

For those unfamiliar, midwives help women go through a natural delivery with no drugs.  This means usually no doctors.

Often times midwives in San Diego perform these services at homes.Although, not known by most people, this way to deliver a baby is a safe and regulated alternative.

The women, or midwives who practice this service are fully regulated.  They can come in the form of a licensed midwife or a certified midwife with a regulatory board overseeing them. 

Sometimes they can be nurse midwives, but that is not a requirement. 

This form of delivery is an option a lot of women choose and includes waterbirth in San Diego. Mostly the choice is made by women because they do not want any drugs during delivery and to prevent any drugs entering the new baby.  Also it is for women who don’t want any invasive procedures such as episiotomys.

Well when making a huge decision on how you want to deliver your baby you want to make the right choices.With most things, you want to pick the right person.

Like I mentioned before, this is a highly regulated industry. With that being the case, finding a good midwife who is licensed or certified is easy. 

All you are going to need to do is get the contact information for your state regulatory board that oversees midwifery and you can easily find out if there have been any complaints or issues with your prospective midwife.

With this step, you can find out if it is a quality midwife and someone you can trust.  Obviously once you find that there are no complaints or reports against the midwife, you also want to check references. 

You are going to want to find a midwife whose clients speak highly of them.  With something as intimate and important as a delivery following these few steps will help you find the right midwife for your delivery.

July 1, 2009

Midwifery and Midwives Explained

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , — Jennifer @ 4:35 pm

Labor and delivery; it brings joy but also pain for the woman.  Obviously joy because of the new baby, but ask any woman, and they will tell you a source of unspeakable pain.

Well because there is that pain involved, two schools of thought have come about on how to deal with labor and delivery.  I am going to offer some perspective on one particular school of thought that I have gained first hand experience with by being a homebirth midwife San Diego.

There is the medical model for delivery which is associated with drugs to kill the pain, and sometimes cesarean to complete the delivery.

There is one other model, though not as common or accepted, but for those that practice it and believe in it, consider it a safer alternative for the woman.

That model is the midwifery model as it is called.That is in obvious contrast with the usual medical model way of doing things.The medical model is where you rely heavily on medicine, while the midwifery model relies on the natural.Midwifery philosphy believes that pregnancy, labor, and delivery should happen as naturally as possible because it is a natural process.

This model is a profession practiced by midwives. Midwives San Diego are generally woman, who attend the birth, often times at the mother’s home.This midwife would help the woman try to deliver the baby as naturally as possible without the use of drugs.

Contrary to popular belief, the non-use of medicine actually allows the labor to happen much faster because most pain killers actually slows the labor down.

The midwife as a profession does have a regulatory board that licenses, certifies, and oversees the individual. 

Although usually not a nurse or doctor, a midwife can be a nurse as well.

Even though they are not a doctor or nurse, they do carry with them some medical equipment, such as resuscitation devices and suturing equipment.

So in regards to pregnancy and delivery this is what a midwife is and generally what midwifery is about.

Their objective is to let the labor and delivery to occur as naturally as possible.  This reduces the likelihood of a c-section.  Doesn’t allow you to be subject to invasive hospital procedures such as episiotomys.There will be less use of managing it with medical techniques such as breaking the water or using any types of drugs for the pregnancy.  And the best part of all that a woman will love, generally labor happens much quicker naturally.

My hope is that this information has given you more information on the benefits of midwifery and using a midwife in your pregnancy.At the very minimum, maybe it gives you some other options to think about and look into.  Remember this is first hand knowledge from a San Diego midwife.

June 27, 2009

Safety of a Homebirth

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , — Jennifer @ 7:04 am

Having the baby in your home? Who does such things?  Didn’t that only happen back in the early days of our country when doctor’s had to go out to the prairie and deliver babies?

Not so.  There is a large group of women who are discovering the benefts of having a baby at home, or homebirth as it is sometimes called.

It is called midwifery the practice of having your baby at home.  Although not doctors or nurses, people in this line of work called midwifery are professionally regulated.  I myself have seen the steady rise of homebirths through my practice as a San Diego certified midwife.

The people, generally women, who perform this line of work are called homebirth midwives.  Midwives is a more common term that people are familiar with and means a person who attends childbirth and provides support during labor and delivery.

Now why the midwife generally isn’t a doctor or nurse is because having your baby at home, or midwifery, is usually the belief that pregnancy and delivery are natural events.  This is in stark contrast with the medical model which relies on medicine to assist and improve the pregnancy and delivery.

With that aside, lets look at why a lot of women are having babies at home rather than hospitals.  What are the reasons why women are choosing homebirths?

First off, with the continued presence of the midwife, the length of labor can be reduced.  Most women don’t realize that the use of pain medications although seemingly helpful in regards to pain, actually slows the labor down.  This actually creates more pain and makes the labor last longer.

Second, midwifery practices actually causes a reduction in the need for forceps and other devices in a delivery.  The process of allowing the birth and delivery to happen naturally is what reduces the need for those devices.

Third, the possiblity of c-section deliveries are actually reduced.  Most c-sections happen when during labor, it was thought that a natural birth process was not possible.  Either because of the safety of the baby was in mind or the safety of the mother.  When in reality the complication was created because the natural birth process wasn’t allowed to happen.

These are 3 benefits when you have a natural homebirth.  There are a lot more benefits, but I am positive most women who are pregnant would say these are 3 huge benefits. 

  So even though some might call it strange to have a child at home, recent studies indicate that allowing a natural birth to happen is much safer for the mom and the baby.  With over 300 births attended as a homebirth midwife in San Diego, this has proven to be the case time and time again.

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