What having a midwife meant for our family
Until I watched the documentary, “The Business of Being Born”, I never knew the difference between a midwife and an OBGYN in terms of their role in pregnancy and postpartum care. Upon watching the documentary, I was surprised to see the difference in level of care with midwives, so when I found out I was pregnant, I began my search for a new provider. I first chose to see a nurse midwife within a health system as somehow most of us are conditioned to believe that staying within the “system” is safer - and of course, it was covered under our insurance. The visits started out great with the nurse midwife. She assured us that she would provide us with all the information and options, but every test, lab, vaccine, or intervention was entirely our decision. As the visits progressed later into the pregnancy, I noticed a shift to more frequent fear mongering and talk about interventions that were clinically unnecessary so early in pregnancy — it only caused me to feel stressed and afraid. I realized our philosophies weren’t aligned and after speaking with our doula, my husband and I decided we were interested in exploring a home birth. She suggested that we reach out to several midwives to find out as much as we could about home births.
We learned about some of the differences in education and practice philosophy among the different certifications for midwifery. A Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) is a registered nurse (RN) who has also completed a graduate-level nurse-midwife program. These providers generally work within or are associated with a health system. On the other hand, a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) may obtain their education by either apprenticeship with a qualified midwife or graduating from a midwifery program or school. CPMs are more likely to receive training outside of a traditional hospital setting and are specially trained to assist with births outside of a hospital. They are trained to monitor a woman’s complete (physical and mental/emotional) well-being from pre-natal through post-natal. They also are committed to using as few technological interventions as possible but are quick to identify concerns and make referrals when intervention is necessary.
Savannah was the first midwife we met with (and the last!). She met us in our home and allowed us to ask the endless list of questions we had. We played out various “what-if” scenarios and expressed every concern and fear. It quickly became clear that she was confident, experienced, and, most importantly, passionate about what she does. She determined I was a good candidate for home birth and after taking our time to reflect on this for another week, we decided to commit to working with her.
Every prenatal and postpartum visit took place within the comfort of our own home. Each visit felt like chatting with a friend and lasted a couple of hours at a time with no rush to move on to the next appointment. When health concerns came up, Savannah did everything she could to educate and communicate with us, and did all of the leg work of finding specialists and making appointments on our behalf. She even ordered specific lab work to closely monitor me to ensure that it would still be safe for me to birth at home.
When my water broke, Savannah was at our door within 30 minutes. My labor progressed rapidly and intensely for a primigravida which caught me off guard, but she never left my side. During the labor her strong presence and gentle coaching helped me surrender to the experience trusting in everything she guided me to do. At one point the baby’s heart rate began to decelerate and without an ounce of worry in her voice she told me exactly what was happening and encouraged me to change positions which helped move things along and resulted in the most beautiful birth experience I could have ever imagined.
Another important aspect of working with Savannah was that she came to the home 24 hours, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks after I gave birth. To have her come so frequently for check ups and be on call for that time answering every question or concern I had about what my body had just been through was incredibly relieving. I couldn’t imagine going weeks without visiting a physician after giving birth. She reassured me that I was healing as expected, checked on our baby, and we were able to reflect on the labor and birth experience which significantly helped me process this life-changing event.
I am so grateful for midwives like Savannah who are providing birth givers with an opportunity to experience a pregnancy and birth where they are fully seen and supported every single step of the way and beyond.