Greetings, I hope this finds you curled up with a hot cup of tea! We haven't gotten our first snow yet but I know many of you have. Time for familiar holiday carols, elderberry syrup, insulating the windows and making sure everyone in the family has a warm pair of slippers. Here's what's been on my mind:
"What do you do?"
When someone asks me what I do for a living, it can be a challenge to really describe since a home birth midwife’s work is so multi-faceted. Here are some of the things I find myself saying when people ask me this question:
"I’m a midwife! I work with women who’ve decided to give birth at home, and so I do all their prenatal care, help them deliver their baby, get started nursing, make sure everybody’s good to go!"
"I’m a midwife - I work with families during pregnancy, labor, birth and the baby’s first few weeks to help them get the best start in life."
"Midwifery care is a no-brainer - it’s really the gold standard for high quality maternity care. You get far more time with your provider. That’s really the number one thing. Appointments with me are typically an hour long, and I come to your home to do it. Midwives approach it from a wellness perspective - though I can do all the same testing and screening as an OB’s office, it’s from a different perspective. Rather than expecting something to go wrong, we know that most healthy women will have a healthy pregnancy. We get to do in-depth nutritional counselling, we talk about all kinds of pregnancy discomforts and what you can do to support your body feeling well and strong, preparation for labor and natural birth, preparation for a strong start in breastfeeding. The best thing about midwifery care is that it is holistic, your midwife wants to get to know you and your needs as a whole person, and as a member of your family. And then help you get whatever YOU need to enter motherhood feeling capable, strong, just feeling like you have what it takes to be a fantastic mom."
"I absolutely love working with families during that time - I just can’t imagine anything more wonderful than to help people have the most genuine, most connected experience during childbirth. For me it’s about high quality healthcare, and it’s also about women’s rights. Culturally there is so much woman-hating wrapped up in women’s healthcare, and especially maternity care, we have high rates of c-sections, moms coming out of the experience feeling ripped off and drugged up, not well prepared for breastfeeding, so a lot of moms are now looking to home birth and midwifery care as a way to get more respectful healthcare. And, it’s safer for the mother and baby to minimize procedures and medications during birth. For example, having fewer (or zero) cervical checks during labor will minimize mom and baby’s risk of infection. Atlantic Monthly did an article called ‘The Most Scientific Birth Is Often The Least Technological Birth’ all about the benefits for mom and baby from simple, low-tech care during birth, and that’s what I do."
Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you haven't heard enough yet about midwives, take a look at these I Am A Midwife videos: midwives talking about what's at the heart of their work.
with love,
Jill.
"What do you do?"
When someone asks me what I do for a living, it can be a challenge to really describe since a home birth midwife’s work is so multi-faceted. Here are some of the things I find myself saying when people ask me this question:
"I’m a midwife! I work with women who’ve decided to give birth at home, and so I do all their prenatal care, help them deliver their baby, get started nursing, make sure everybody’s good to go!"
"I’m a midwife - I work with families during pregnancy, labor, birth and the baby’s first few weeks to help them get the best start in life."
"Midwifery care is a no-brainer - it’s really the gold standard for high quality maternity care. You get far more time with your provider. That’s really the number one thing. Appointments with me are typically an hour long, and I come to your home to do it. Midwives approach it from a wellness perspective - though I can do all the same testing and screening as an OB’s office, it’s from a different perspective. Rather than expecting something to go wrong, we know that most healthy women will have a healthy pregnancy. We get to do in-depth nutritional counselling, we talk about all kinds of pregnancy discomforts and what you can do to support your body feeling well and strong, preparation for labor and natural birth, preparation for a strong start in breastfeeding. The best thing about midwifery care is that it is holistic, your midwife wants to get to know you and your needs as a whole person, and as a member of your family. And then help you get whatever YOU need to enter motherhood feeling capable, strong, just feeling like you have what it takes to be a fantastic mom."
"I absolutely love working with families during that time - I just can’t imagine anything more wonderful than to help people have the most genuine, most connected experience during childbirth. For me it’s about high quality healthcare, and it’s also about women’s rights. Culturally there is so much woman-hating wrapped up in women’s healthcare, and especially maternity care, we have high rates of c-sections, moms coming out of the experience feeling ripped off and drugged up, not well prepared for breastfeeding, so a lot of moms are now looking to home birth and midwifery care as a way to get more respectful healthcare. And, it’s safer for the mother and baby to minimize procedures and medications during birth. For example, having fewer (or zero) cervical checks during labor will minimize mom and baby’s risk of infection. Atlantic Monthly did an article called ‘The Most Scientific Birth Is Often The Least Technological Birth’ all about the benefits for mom and baby from simple, low-tech care during birth, and that’s what I do."
Thanks for taking the time to read this! If you haven't heard enough yet about midwives, take a look at these I Am A Midwife videos: midwives talking about what's at the heart of their work.
with love,
Jill.
