Congrats & welcome to MDC! A moderator will likely move this for you, but you'll want to go to your 'Tribal area" (in the "finding your tribe" section) for input on local MWs & OBs. In my area, there really is only ONE great hospital for birth, a few others that are OK, and others that I say I would rather squat alone in the woods than give birth there! (GBMC with a 44% CS (c-section) rate!) I suspect greater Philly area is similar - there will be a great deal of consensus on where to birth.
Actually, there's a hospital in the Philly area that attempted to get a court order to FORCE a mama into a CS she didn't want for... get this.. .big baby! The couple just left & ended up with a perfectly healthy, natural birth at another hospital. But - scary!!! the story is in the EXCELLENT book, 'Pushed" by Jennifer Block.
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Originally Posted by birdsonthewire  What are the benefits to going to a midwife instead of a doctor?
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Midwives specialize in healthy pregnancy & birth. They generally view it as a normal physiological process (which it is). OBs are trained
surgeons & generally view birth as dangerous - so they tend to interfere more with interventions (such as telling women they can't eat or drink while the labor, they have to stay hooked up to a monitor the whole time - and tons upon tons of research shows this is NOT helpful & only harmful for healthy pregnancies). In turn, these 'interventions' lead to a
cascade of other inventions... leading to CS!
The rate of CS in the US now is over 32% which is INSANE and nearly triple with the WHO recommends it should be.
MWs also tend to give more personalized care, more one-on-one time with you. They may also offer other methods for pain relief such as water birth. & of course, you could go with homebirth midwife, where you generally can have a waterbirth AND the emotional comfort of being in your own territory.
Of course, these are generalizations and each health care provider (HCP) is an individual.
A great place to get started learning about birth in the US is the movie "The Business of Being Born." You can get it on Netflix. There are a few others --"Pregnant in America' (Although I haven't seen that) & "Orgasmic Birth" (despite the sensationalist title, it really is a great, all around birth movie - and focuses on how birth can be 'joyful' & the dangers of unnecessary interventions.)
For books, "Pushed" is awesome, as is "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer. The latter convinced me I didn't want a "medicalized birth" & I would just 'suck it up' & deal with the pain. Then I read "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" by famous midwife Ina May Gaskin & was convinced that although birth was likely to be painful, it would be awesome overall & I started looking forward to the experience itself, not just something I could merely 'endure'.
You will also want to look into classes. Bradley & Hypnobabies are great, but you have time for that. Bradley generally starts at the beginning of the 3rd trimester. Not sure about Hypnobabies
GL!
