dcn@encore.UUCP (Dave Noderer) (09/04/85)
We are about to have our second child assisted by a midwife in
a hospital birthing room. The midwife makes for a more comfortable and
relaxed birth where we have some level of control over the situation.
If there are any problems there are doctors standing by and a delivery
room down the hall.
Pre-natal care is better also. The nurse midwife has time to sit
and talk about the various changes and problems during pregancy. The
atmosphere is more relaxed and less of the assembly line you might find
in a doctors office.
The birth itself is better in that the woman is free to walk
around, take a bath or what ever might help to relieve the pain.
With our first child I got to help deliver the baby and cut the cord.
The baby got started to nurse right away and stayed with us for
1/2 hour or so until we brought it down to the nursery.
I would highly recommend anyone having a baby to at least look
into utilizing a midwife...
--
Dave Noderer
Encore Computer Inc.
257 Cedar Hill St.
Marlboro, MA. 01752
617-460-0500
{linus, decvax, ihnp4}!encore!dcndwl10@amdahl.UUCP (Dave Lowrey) (09/06/85)
> I would highly recommend anyone having a baby to at least look > into utilizing a midwife... > -- > Maryland Blue Cross refuses to certify Midwives, therfore, they can't get malpractice insurance in this state. Without insurance, the hospitals won't allow them to deliver there. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Lowrey "To vacillate or not to vacillate, that is the question.... ....or is it?" ...!(<sun,cbosgd,ihnp4}!amdahl!dwl10 [ The opinions expressed <may> be those of the author and not necessarily those of his most eminent employer. ]
peg@linus.UUCP (Margaret E. Craft) (09/09/85)
You don't have to use a mid-wife to get all the things you mentioned - you just have to have a good OB and maternity ward! I got all the attention I wanted in pre-natal, and took at least 4 showers during my labor. I was not restircted to staying in bed, as some women report in hospital situations. My suggestion is you ask lots of questions, and change hospitals/OBs if you aren't going to get the birthding experience you want. I have nothing agains mid-wives - you should ask the same questions of them as well!
45223wc@mtuxo.UUCP (w.cambre) (09/09/85)
REFERENCES: <225@encore.UUCP> Was the midwife associated with the hospital? There aren't any hospitals in Jersey that would let a midwife that wasn't associated with that hospital deliver the child. Actually I don't know of any hospitals in Jersey that allows Midwives to deliver at all. In New Jersey only Nurse-Midwives can get a license to deliver babies, (not Lay-midwives). And then they can practice only if they have a doctor as backup at the nearest hospital to the location of the birth. Very few doctors are willing to be backup for midwives, the only one I know of in the Monmouth county area is backup for his wife, who is a nurse-midwife and does home births. - Bill Cambre ATTISL mtuxo!45223wc
smith@umn-cs.UUCP (09/09/85)
You do NOT have to find a midwife to have a good birth experience. The midwife experience described here sounded exactly the same as our experience with a family physician. It's important to find a physician who really cares about his/her patients, is willing to take time with them, and is flexible about birthing options. I admit that in some locales (especially Out East where the profession is controlled by Academic Medicine and crippled by astronomic malpractice insurance) it may be harder to find a nice physician. Rick.
todd@scirtp.UUCP (Todd Jones) (09/10/85)
> Maryland Blue Cross refuses to certify Midwives, therfore, they > can't get malpractice insurance in this state. Without insurance, the > hospitals won't allow them to deliver there. > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dave Lowrey You don't suppose that has anything to do with the lobbying efforts of the AMA do you?
rdp@teddy.UUCP (09/10/85)
In article <3800008@umn-cs.UUCP> smith@umn-cs.UUCP writes: > > You do NOT have to find a midwife to have a good birth experience. The >midwife experience described here sounded exactly the same as our experience >with a family physician. It's important to find a physician who really cares >about his/her patients, is willing to take time with them, and is flexible >about birthing options. This, from our experience, seems to be the secret. > I admit that in some locales (especially Out East where the profession >is controlled by Academic Medicine and crippled by astronomic malpractice >insurance) it may be harder to find a nice physician. > I'm not sure if I resent the "Out East" reference here. From what I have gathered, there still seems to be a nationwide "conspiracy" to view childbirth as a disease and not another part of life in general. Out last birth experience was in a hospital setting (Beth Isreal, through a local HMO). The doctor was most sympathetic, and took our opinions and desires very seriously ("No I will not have any pitosin!"). He was very supportive, to the point that if my wife was beginning to feel uncomfortable with him, then he would appologize and leave until things had settled down. The environemnt was one of roominess, bright and cheery, and confortable. The result was a smooth, relatively quick delivery that we all have very good memories about.
pfoley@mhuxt.UUCP (foley) (09/10/85)
> REFERENCES: <225@encore.UUCP> > > Was the midwife associated with the hospital? There aren't any > hospitals in Jersey that would let a midwife that wasn't associated > with that hospital deliver the child. Actually I don't know of any > hospitals in Jersey that allows Midwives to deliver at all. > > In New Jersey only Nurse-Midwives can get a license to deliver babies, > (not Lay-midwives). And then they can practice only if they have a > doctor as backup at the nearest hospital to the location of the birth. > Very few doctors are willing to be backup for midwives, the only one > I know of in the Monmouth county area is backup for his wife, who > is a nurse-midwife and does home births. > > - Bill Cambre ATTISL mtuxo!45223wc I know of two hospitals that have midwives on their staffs - Morristown Memorial and University Hospital in Newark (I think that's the name - it's associated with the College of Medicine and Dentistry). I don't know what the exact deal is at Morristown, but a friend who just delivered there was checked by a midwife in between visits from her doctor. A friend of mine is a midwife at University Hospital, and she does deliveries in the hospital (none at home). Pam Foley mhuxt!pfoley
andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (09/13/85)
> We are about to have our second child assisted by a midwife in > a hospital birthing room. The midwife makes for a more comfortable and > relaxed birth where we have some level of control over the situation. > If there are any problems there are doctors standing by and a delivery > room down the hall. > > Pre-natal care is better also. The nurse midwife has time to sit > and talk about the various changes and problems during pregancy. The > atmosphere is more relaxed and less of the assembly line you might find > in a doctors office. > > The birth itself is better in that the woman is free to walk > around, take a bath or what ever might help to relieve the pain. > With our first child I got to help deliver the baby and cut the cord. > The baby got started to nurse right away and stayed with us for > 1/2 hour or so until we brought it down to the nursery. > > I would highly recommend anyone having a baby to at least look > into utilizing a midwife... Our delivery matched this description. We were in a LDR (labor, delivery, recovery) birthing room, and there was a delivery room available down the hall. The pre-natal care given us by the nurse assigned to us was excellent. We were free (encouraged!) to walk around, take a bath (private bathroom attached), or whatever. After birth, the baby remained with us for a few minutes, then I (the father) accompanied her to the nursery where I stayed with her for over an hour. But there was no midwife involved. Our daughter was delivered by a medical doctor, who was able to handle emergencies as they developed. As it happens, there were complications, and I was very happy with our choice of attendants. To summarize, you can get this sort of relaxed, caring, involved birth environment without giving up the advanced skills and immediate responsiveness that only a medical doctor can deliver. It all depends on the hospital that you choose. Shop around. -=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP] (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]
mark@tove.UUCP (Mark Weiser) (09/16/85)
In article <1993@amdahl.UUCP> dwl10@amdahl.UUCP (Dave Lowrey) writes: >Maryland Blue Cross refuses to certify Midwives, therfore, they >can't get malpractice insurance in this state. Without insurance, the >hospitals won't allow them to deliver there. Well, I live in Maryland, and things can't be this simple. Our baby was born at home, using midwives, so that is one solution. However, we did have hospital backup and the hospital had worked with these midwives before and there seemed to be no problem. A third data point is that recently Maryland Blue Cross started paying for home births, presumably using midwives. -mark -- Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@maryland Phone: +1-301-454-7817 CSNet: mark@umcp-cs UUCP: {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742