Picking a midwife/doctor

[heathenmom]

Does everybody (but me) already have a doctor or midwife for this pregnancy? I kinda-sorta burnt some bridges with dd#2's birth and if I don't up/uc (still on the fence) then I need to figure out what to do. Out of hospital births seem to be very rare in my area and as far as I know there are only 2 hbmw's who attend births here. That's FAR better than when we were expecting #2, but far, far fewer than the northern part of the state.

Just wondering whether I'm the biggest slacker mom around ...

[redeyedvireo]

I haven't contacted any midwives yet. I had a fantastic birth attendant with my first homebirth, but that was thousands of miles away, and I'm worried I won't be able to find anyone who is as hands-off as she was. Guess I'd better start calling and interviewing soon. Are we really supposed to find midwives this soon? I remember I did the first time around, but had the feeling I was jumping the gun.

[SoCaliMommy]

Nope your not the only one. I'll probably going next week to confirm the pregnancy, then i have to sit through a pregnancy class * i have kaiser for insurance* this was what i had to do with my son when i was pregnant with him and after the class they set up your first prenatal appointment and i'm gonna request the obgyn i had with my son.

Edited to add i will be doing prenatal but plan to UC and if needed we will have the hospital incase

[Evergreen]

I don't have anyone either.

Things sort of fell into place the last two times so I'm hoping that's what happens here.

I did find a doula though!

I'm also interviewing my gyno next week to see if we'll mesh with her as my OB as a backup in case I can't find someone to attend a home birth.

[GolfAddict]

I have a MW already but only because I had just done all the research earlier in the year. There are only 2 MW's under my insurance and both do only hospital births. I'm sure that is a requirement to be able to accept United.

When I went in for my FU appt from the mc I met the backup doc....and we didn't mesh at all. He didn't like that I kept asking him questions. So I just switched to the other MW. I went on Monday (early due to the mc) and the nurse was very sweet. And their backup doc is a woman which I am more comfortable with anyway. I will see the MW for the first time on Oct 20 when I go in for sono.

But most do not care to see you until 8 wks anyway. So you have some time to do some research.

[KingsDaughter76]

I have a midwife and my first appointment next wed- Oct 6th. She is the one who delivered my last baby 2 years ago.

[Smokering]

My previous midwife AND her backup are both away next June, in Africa, for a midwifery conference. I was really sad, I loved Sallie. She was so sweet and apologetic, and recommended another midwife for me - and said she wanted to come around and see the baby and DD after the birth. The midwife she recommended is away this week though, so I'll ring her next week.

[english-mummy]

we have a homebirth mw appointment arranged for the 8weeks mark.
we had a homebirth for our first daughter, but that was in another state so we couldn't have the same midwife this time around :-(
This little bean was a long-time planned, and earlier in the year when I was changing health insurances I contacted the only homebirth midwives in the area to see what insurance they accept.
As I said they are the only ones in the area so the options were limited!
I haven't actually met them yet, although they seem nice enough on the phone. We got the positive result last week and I only phoned them yesterday. I thought we would be way early but they said they already had four babies on their list for June! How did that happen? We are due June 5th!!!!!
And I thought I was being crazily over-eager!!!!!

[bax]

I've talked to a mw on the phone, but haven't set up the first meet & greet yet or signed on the dotted line. Have to do all sorts of irritating figuring with insurance etc. etc. and figure out if we can swing her or if we should consider my previous mw, who's in network, but a lot farther away. So--you're not the only one!

[BarefootScientist]

I haven't contacted anyone yet either. I probably will call the group of hospital-based midwives here on Monday and make an appointment. I don't even know if they practice as a group or individually. I tried to get recommendations but I don't really know ALL that many people here. I'd be up for a family doctor if they were natural-birth friendly but I wouldn't even know where to start to find one. I may just go with the CNMs (or one of them, depending on how things work). I will also be preparing for a UC, though not sure whether I will actually have the birth UC or not yet, at this point. At least I will know I can this time!

Last time I was in a serious hurry. I tested on Saturday and called for an appointment first thing Monday morning. And I was astonished when they scheduled me an appointment for more than a month off! This time, I'm like...ehh...I'm not getting any prenatal testing and they can't do much of anything if I miscarry, so it's not really important to get prenatal care until the second trimester if then...or it could be I'm just lazy.

[BHappy]

Originally Posted by BarefootScientist

This time, I'm like...ehh...I'm not getting any prenatal testing and they can't do much of anything if I miscarry, so it's not really important to get prenatal care until the second trimester if then...or it could be I'm just lazy.

i feel the same way. maybe we're both lazy

that said, i'm really excited to see my midwife who helped deliver my dd 10 years ago!


xo

[heathenmom]

Originally Posted by BarefootScientist

Last time I was in a serious hurry. I tested on Saturday and called for an appointment first thing Monday morning. And I was astonished when they scheduled me an appointment for more than a month off! This time, I'm like...ehh...I'm not getting any prenatal testing and they can't do much of anything if I miscarry, so it's not really important to get prenatal care until the second trimester if then...or it could be I'm just lazy.

This all sounds exactly how things went with my 1st & 2nd! LOL I didn't see ANYBODY with dd#2 until I was already 20 weeks. Wish I'd "just said no" to all of it. She was born at home unassisted.

[Smokering]

Just a caution - I was lazy last time and didn't start looking for a midwife until 12 weeks. (Actually I wasn't lazy - my incompetent GP was all blase and "Oh, you have heaps of time, don't even WORRY about it until the second trimester"...) And yeah... my first choice was all booked up, as were the next six midwives I tried, until I finally got Sallie - and that was only because another woman had had a miscarriage. So, beware!

Course, I thought I was being super clever this time by ringing up at 15DPO, but she's out of the country next June, so you can never tell!

[JosieAK]

I haven't contacted my midwife yet. I am feeling somewhat the same way: I've been down this path, there's not much I can do to change things, etc. Personally, I'm looking at my diet and exercise, avoiding caffine, and so on. but I'm a big girl and don't need someone to tell me that.

However, I really like my midwife. She's like my personal therapist. I can't wait to start seeing her again. I will probably call her next week and see what she wants to do .

GolfAddict, you have United? I have that too this time. We have a lousy plan with $2500 deductable. Yikes! I could almost hire a midwife for that. And I am worried that they are just going to ignore anything submitted from a direct entry midwife anyway. I'm not looking forward to the financial aspects of this at all, but hospital is not an option for me, well not unless my midwife tells me to after 36 hours of labor. But that's another story.

[MrsHin2002]

My family doctor also delivers babies -- so with previous pregnancies and DS's birth, she was my doctor. We ended up with an OB for the c-section, but our dr assisted. I don't have to worry about insurance issues (in Canada), but I'm not sure how it works for midwives here. They've only been recently approved for full rights at the hospital, if I understand correctly. I'm ok with a hospital birth anyhow and really like my dr so hopefully I can have a hospital vbac with her if there aren't issues again (DS was face-down instead of scalp down)... and if needed, the same OB would be my dr as well. So I'm pretty comfortable with those options. I have an appt to see my dr on Tuesday (wanting some early confirmations with past m/cs).

[heathenmom]

Oh good GRIEF this is not going well! I don't want to see the ob I saw for my last pregnancy. I'm auto-risked-out of the birthing center due to t2 diabetes. I had high hopes for another ob, but she's not taking any new patients. Neither is the 2nd one I called, but her partner is. When I mentioned the t2 diabetes, the receptionist suggested I call the local perinatology group ... who is NOT covered by my insurance. When I asked, she agreed that I could at least come in for an initial visit at 7 weeks, when I guess they'll decide if they'll actually accept me as a patient.

I'm now remembering why dd#2 was unassisted ....

[GolfAddict]

Josie - I think my deductible is $800 then they cover 20% up to an additional $1500. After that they cover 100%. I think I have used about 80% of the $2300 with my pg and mc earlier in the year. That was one reason why we wanted to get pg again this year. MW's in my area are about $5000. Did you check with United to see what their MW coverage is. There were 2 MW groups in my area that were in-network. I believe one requirement is that the MW has to deliver in a hospital. But I really don't think I could DH on board with a HB anyway.

[Tumble Bumbles]

I'm a slacker too I do have a m/w but only because there are only like three in my area who attend home births and I used one of them for my first home birth (but won't be using her again. She was very competent but the spiritual 'connection' wasn't there).

I only did the meet-and greet with my current mw and my first appt isnt until Nov.

[BarefootScientist]

Well, I set up a meeting with a homebirth midwife. I might be totally changing my plans - I was planning to leave my options open between hospital and unassisted and now I am leaning toward MW-assisted homebirth but I guess I have to meet the midwife first! The meeting is next week. Also have to convince DH. He'll be at the meeting. I personally don't think he'll be too hard to convince. He says his main concern is that we're in an apartment. He's worried about the lack of space and the lack of privacy. He claims I was noisy during my last birth...I swear I don't remember that at all. Although I did probably make some grunting noises in a sad attempt to communicate that I was ok but please stop talking to me during contractions! LOL

[SWhite]

I just set up an appointment with a midwifery group Oct 19th. I will have to discuss insurance issues then but I know from soup to nuts costs about $7000. OY! Is this within range or insanely expensive? Anyone have any advice on that? Thanks!