Yes, I had my first midwife appointment this week. I am in love. Not necessarily with my midwife, who actually hugged me when I left, but with the level of care I received. Because the intent of my blog is to help women who may be deciding if a natural birth, a home birth, a water birth, or a birth with a midwife is for them, I'll go over how the appointment went.
We arrived at our appointment just a few minutes late. We rang the doorbell outside of the office (the birth center) and were warmly greeted by Rebecca, the midwife. She led us into the birth center and gave us a quick tour. We saw her waiting area and her "family room," which is one of many play areas for kids, this one was equipped with Disney movies to watch. Then we walked through the hall/labwork area, and we saw the birthing suite. Loved it. If I couldn't birth in my home, I would definitely feel at home there! It looks like a little bed and breakfast suite, with virtually no medically equipment visible. Off of the birthing suite was a private HUGE bathroom. And the tub... oh my word, the tub! It was developed specifically for birthing. It's really wide and squishy. I don't know how to explain it, but it was designed by some very smart people. The outer shell of the tub has a layer of sand under it so it gives a little as you push against it.
Okay, enough daydreaming about the tub. Just outside of the birthing suite was a bookshelf stocked with children's books, and more toys. Down the hall was the kitchen and a laundry area. On the opposite side of the hall, past the birthing suite, was the rest room and the actual office. Once we toured the facility, she asked if we wanted to check if there was actually a baby inside of me. Yes please!
So I climbed up on the exam table, like in any doctors office, and pulled my shirt up for the ultrasound. At 10 weeks, there really isn't that much to see, but we did get a glimpse of our little squiggly blob and saw its heartbeat. There was a little scare (for me) when it looked for a moment too big to be just one baby. But she checked from several angles and we're pretty sure we're good. I was glad I saw the heartbeat because she wasn't able to pick it up on the doppler. Sophia liked holding the pictures, so Rebecca printed out Sophia's very own picture of the baby.
After the exam, we went and drew some blood. Sophia ate a cheesestick and pretty much had run of the place while I filled out paperwork. She also let me weigh myself, and since I was on the line between 149 and 150, she let me choose the weight we went with. Guess what I chose. :) The waiting room quickly became Gary's napping place and we let him sleep for the remainder of the appointment.After labwork we went back into the office, where we discussed things like nutrition, exercise, birth, concerns, etc. She answered all of my questions and what's more, I felt like she had time to answer the questions. With my previous doctor I always felt silly for asking things because I knew he had about a million other things to do. We stopped when necessary to distract Sophia from things like attempting to break a model of the pelvis and banging our heads with a plastic golf club. Never did Rebecca seem annoyed with Sophia's presence.
So then I peed in a cup (once you're pregnant you graduate from peeing on a stick to peeing in a cup), and she used a dip stick to test for all sorts of bad things in my urine. Everything was fine, except that I was dehydrated a bit, which didn't surprise me. We went back into her office and talked for a few minutes and set up our next appointment. Then Rebecca hugged me and congratulated me on our baby, then we went to wake up Gary.
Grand total amount of time we spent in the office? Two hours.
Because the time was spent mostly getting to know each other, I know this was a longer visit. But from my understanding, a midwife appointment generally lasts about an hour. I usually spend an hour at the doctor's office... but only about 10 minutes with my doctor. I really loved that this was all about me and my choices. I loved that there was enough to distract Sophia that she wasn't screaming with boredom by two hours. I loved that it was quiet enough my husband could actually sleep!
Overall I was deeply impressed. In fact, I forgot that I'm typically shy and nervous in those situations until I got home! It does kind of make me wonder, why do we put up with doctors? Why do we let them treat us like cattle, herding us from one waiting room to the next? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know this pretty much sums up any decisions I had left. I could a) see my doctor for a total of two hours before he comes in for the birth to "catch" the baby. Or I could b) visit with a midwife who takes the time to get to know me and my baby, makes me feel comfortable, have a birth in an environment where I'm most comfortable, and allows me to make the most choices. It's really a tough decision, isn't it?
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