An Occasion for a Midwife

Today is a beautiful day!  

   Today we get to meet with our midwife again. Oh, how I love her. She is an amazing person, woman, and midwife, and I have no fear putting my birth in her hands. This woman has delivered over 2000 babies, and has been doing so for 25 years. Out of her 2000+ deliveries, 3 have ended up in the hospital, 3! Did you know that the Cesarean rate at hospitals nation wide is now 1 in 4? 1 in every 4 women will end up with a c-section. Necessary??? I think not!

   Our midwife is great, and for those of you who do not know how this works, this is how.

At this point I see my midwife once a month. She comes to me. The natural way is not for a mother to move. The midwife comes to us. We hug, and greet one another, Patrick loves her. We may sit and talk for a moment or so and catch up. "How are you feeling?" And then she pulls out her gear. She checks my blood pressure, Patrick loves to squeeze it a few times. She checks my urine, to make sure my levels are where they need to be. She presses on my stomach to feel where my uterus is now, and then the really fun part. She pulls out the lube, lol, and the Doppler.

 Patrick also loves this part as well, because we get to hear the baby's heart beating. Usually the

 midwife will let Patrick move the Doppler around on my belly, he gets so excited. He is able to participate in the whole experience. This visit is so much better than a visit with an OB. She do

es all the same things you would get there, except you also get a friend, and someone who is actually working for you!

   Since January I have been running a non profit group in town, an Attachment Parenting group. So far so good. The goal of the group is to offer support to those who practice aspects of AP, and the other is to educate others on the benefits of AP related topics. These topics are things like; Breastfeeding, holding your baby often, not letting your child cry, gentle discipline, circumcision,

 vaccinations, and natural childbirth. In May, we will be talking about natural childbirth, and home birth, and the facts and myths about both. I have done the research, and have the stats. I found some photos that represent what people think of when they think midwife, and could not help but laugh. I poll taken recently showed that photos like these are still

 the common perception of midwifery, unbelievable that we can be in this day and age, and this is what people think. Do you know why? Lack of education. Thought these were great.

And this last photo my friends is of a modern day midwife. Not an old dirty uneducated woman. No, today's midwife has been through nursing school, today's midwife has been through midwifery school, and training, and an apprenticeship. You can not just one day say, "I want to be one, I am one." You have to be certified in most places, and today's midwife looks like you and me. Young and old, and ever more, they are all over the world. Most country's main percentages of births are still being done by midwifes. Makes one question, if birth being taken out of the home and put into the hospital, really is the best thing for mom and baby.