OB or midwife?

Question

Would like to know the pros and cons of both please!

Answer

I have a midwife. I feel like she will trust my decision and not run to medications.  She explains everything to me and pushes for a natural experience. First time mom.

Answer

I birthed my first with a midwife. I had my second with a midwife though my care was transfered to an ob for a few weeks when i had preterm labour scares...i was transfered back when i hit 37 weeks. This time im with a midwife.

With a doctor you get about 5 minutes of tgeir attention per appointment. Many hate answering questions and expectbyou to just blindly trust them. During birth i had an on call NOT my OB. I got an ibtervention happy horrible ob.

With the midwife i had an hour every appoibtment if u needed it and can ask any questions. She gave a wealth of information about nutrition, herbs, excersize, birth and baby care. After birth she came every day for 3 or 4 days. Then came every week up to 6 weeks. She in that time cared for both myself and baby. It was wonderful!

Answer

Midwives prefer natural- limited intervention, alternative pain relief, that sort of thing. Drs can err on the side of encouraging intervention (though not always).  Drs are better in true emergency situations (midwives can't do surgery) and for patients with more risk.
For me I'm going with a dr, but a midwife wouldn't be comfortable treating me because of health issues I was born with. However I found a dr who is very... laid back. He hasn't pushed for anything and is very go with the flow.

If you're having a hospital birth sometimes you can have a midwife (usually they are an ARNP or something like that too) as your primary provider, with the dr as an emergency backup. At home or a center if something happens you'll need to be transferred to the hospital.

Everyone I knew who has had a midwife has had a great experience, but all of them were really healthy the entire time and there were no known issues with baby, no complications. And they all used non-medicated pain management techniques.

But I also know someone who hemorrhaged during birth and would have died if she hadn't been under a drs care.  This was a total fluke thing, and not common, and there were no warning signs before (to my knowledge).  So there's that to consider too.

OB or midwife?

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