Homebirthers?

[Contrariety]

This will (hopefully) be my first HB. My head is absolutely *swimming* trying to figure out just where to start to find a HB Midwife. Any veteran HB mamas have advice?

[Maela]

I found my hb mw by asking in my area of the Finding your Tribe forums. Have you checked there yet?

Good luck!

[Therese's Mommy]

Yep, found mine in FYT, I would check there first.

[cileag]

I've been planning a home birth since way before I got pregnant, so now that I am, I'm looking into it, but am not quite sure where to start. I know many of the midwives in my area--but from what I've heard a lot of midwives don't start seeing patient until later on, so I wasn't planning on calling them for a few weeks yet.

[treehugginmama]

Word of mouth is great, internet search for midwives in your area but then make sure to interview all of them. Every midwife is different, so find one that has the same birth philosophy is yours.

[firewoman]

Generally midwives begin seeing their pregnant mom's between 8 and 12 weeks, which is similar to an OB who usually schedule the first appointment around 8 weeks. I agree with everyone else that you should check the finding your tribe section. Once you get a couple names, you can call and interview them and often times the midwives themselves will give you the names of other midwives to interview to see who is the best fit. Good luck!

[jillybeans]

bring a list of questions to interview your midwives. I can't believe I forgot to do that the first time!

[hapersmion]

Yep, I asked in FYT for people's stories about the local midwives - it's good to hear other people's experiences.

[Degas]

I found mine in FYT too.

[mrscompgeek]

Im planning a homebirth too. My midwife is actually the same one that delivered my baby brother for my mom 13 years ago. But definetly check the finding your tribe thread here.

[Kritto]

You can start doing your research, and even interviewing midwives, before you reach that 8-12 week mark. They should be willing to meet with you and discuss their birth philosophy, their experience and how things work in their practice. Definitely don't feel like you have to go with the first one you meet - make sure you're happy, comfortable and compatible with your midwife. You'll be seeing them for a while!

~Kritto
(who is sticking with the same midwife we used last time, and can't wait to call her and tell her the good news!)

[sphinxie]

A friend told me that the schedules of midwives can fill up, so it's worth starting early. I'm interviewing two of the midwife groups that are closest to me, I hope that one of them will feel right.

[fyrebloom]

The big midwifery conference is in OCT this year so book early! You may have trouble finding a midwife because of this conflict!

[JamieB]

It's pretty simple around here because all the midwives are part of a practice. So you just choose which practice you want to use depending on where town you would rather drive to. I don't know if Ontario has any independent widwives.....?

Good luck with everything!

[AuntieLiz]

I have found that midwives in my area are very hard to find. If midwives fly low under the radar where you live, you can look for a doula first (they are usually much more "visible" and easy to find, just Google your city/state and "doula"). Most doulas have enough connections in the area to provide you with contact info for local midwives.

Good luck!

[Bardocka]

I would also recommend finding a midwife soon. The ones I've been calling are already booking up for October. I'm in Canada though, so it might be a bit different there.