Anyone Have Positive Experiences with U of M Midwives??

[Brighids Flame]

I'm around 4.5 weeks pregnant, and last month found out that I have a blood disease that precludes me from having the homebirth I was hoping for . Unfortunately, I also found out that the OB-Gyn I had been seeing is very closed-minded and not at all natural-birth-friendly, so I'm suddenly very much in the market for a new care provider.

I'm hoping to see one of the midwives at U of M (I'm hoping they'll take me in spite of me being potentially high-risk), but I figured I'd check on here to see if anyone has seen or worked with any of them before. Are they very natural-birth friendly (delayed cord clamping, me keeping my placenta, waterbirthing)? Was there a particular midwife there that you would highly recommend I see?

I'm not sure how soon I can get in to see them (if they are even taking patients right now), but then again I'm not precisely sure when I really need to have my first prenatal appointment.

I'm also totally open to suggestions of natural-birth-friendly OBs in the area, in case the midwives think I'm too high-risk to birth with them.

Thanks in advance!

[Defenestrator]

I've had lots of positive experiences with them as a doula and as a midwife collaborating with them. I've also had experiences working with clients with blood clotting disorders as both a midwife and doula, so if you want to talk about that, feel free to pm me.  I have found that even though UofM has a lot of flaws, there is a culture of trying to respect patient wishes there and trying to preserve informed consent.  Their new hospital, which will be open in November, has better waterbirth facilities than the current one, so I hope that they will do better with making waterbirth a viable option.  The delayed cord clamping and the placenta-keeping are non-issues there -- they will respect your wishes with those.

There are several midwives I recommend there -- Joann Bailey, Heather Lemon, Lisa Schieman, among others.

Good luck!

[pizbo]

When you say that UofM has a lot of flaws, what kinds of flaws are you talking about. I've scheduled an appointment with the UofM midwives and am very interested in a natural birth (waterbirth if possible). I'm looking for someplace that will respect my wishes and am hoping that University Hospital will be a good fit. 

[Brighids Flame]

OMG, I'm so sorry, I had no idea anyone had responded to this! I just came back in to update with my experiences so far in case anyone else came looking for this information.

Thank you Stacia for your input, I saw Lisa S. last week and so far I have been very pleased with how respectful she, and the prenatal intake coordinator, have been as far as my wishes for my prenatal care.

Pizbo, so far everyone I've seen seems on-board with natural birth, but I would be very interested to hear what kind of response you get regarding waterbirthing. I know that they will have some tubs in the new hospital, so they'll be fine with water labor but I totally forgot to ask my midwife about whether I could waterbirth. I won't be seeing her again until the end of September, so if you get an answer sooner (yes, you can waterbirth or no, we don't allow waterbirths, just water labor), please let me know.

As far as my experiences:

So far everyone has been very friendly, and has not tried to pressure me into any procedures or tests that I don't want done. My husband and I have chosen not to have any genetic screening done, and we want minimal use of ultrasounds and doppler, and the midwife has been supportive in all of those preferences. She offered to listen to the heart tones when I was 10 weeks and 5 days, but warned that she doesn't usually try that early. I told her that we would rather wait until our 16 week appointment, and she was totally fine with it. I was also really relieved when she accepted my EDD based on my charting rather than LMP. She seems to really respect my wishes, and respect my knowledge of my own body.

The prenatal coordinator is very friendly and helpful. While I was in my appointment last week, she arranged an appointment for me to see the high-risk OBs at U of M, only 3 days later. Thankfully, the OBs gave me the thumbs-up to continue my prenatal care and deliver with the midwives, so I'm thrilled.

The only complaints I have so far are:

1) Appointments take FOREVER. The Planned Parenthood office seems, in general, to always be behind schedule, so expect a half hour/hour long wait before you see the midwife. My appointment last week was supposed to take 40 minutes and my husband ended up being away from work for 3 hours(!!) because of the long wait time and long appointment.

2) Lisa seems really nice, but maybe a bit distracted? I don't know if it was just a one-time thing or if she's always like that, but she left to get some papers for me to sign, and forgot about us! She came back in around 10 minutes later because the prenatal coordinator (who is amazing!) went and reminded her that we were still waiting in the room. I have my fingers crossed that it was just a one-time thing, because I really like her attitudes toward prenatal care, and I feel comfortable talking to her and asking questions.

I will say that having experienced an appointment with a midwife, and with the OBs, I can't imagine choosing OB-care if I had the choice. They ignored my request to not listen to the fetal heart tones because "We just really like to hear them." Thankfully we heard a healthy heart pumping away, but I didn't appreciate having my desires ignored when there was NO indication that there was anything wrong with our fetus (and thus no reason to attempt to hear the heart tones so early). They were nice enough, but it was clear that it was doctor-centered care, not woman-centered care. I'm looking forward to continuing my care with the midwives, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone has about my experiences.

[LMonterosso]

Hi,

I'm due in March with my first baby and am also using the U of M midwives. I have not had too many visits, honestly, because I have been completing an internship out of state, but will be back in a few weeks for good.

The visits that I have had have gone really well though.

Does anyone know what the new hospital is like? I heard that it opened this month and have not been able to see it since I have been out of state.

Would love any info on that and any input on working with U of M midwives that you might have.

Thank you!

[amberbirthdoula]

The new hospital is going to be awesome! It will be open Dec 4th & there will now be 8 rooms with tubs (before there were only 3 so sometimes I had clients who wanted one and didn't get one) so that will be great. There are also more rooms overall so hopefully less time spent in triage/no sharing rooms on the 7th floor for post-c-section moms. :) Also, the U of M midwives are wonderful, I've had a chance to work with 9 of them and they were all very sweet and open to whatever the moms wanted. You have a lot more freedom when you deliver with them.

I would recommend scheduling a tour of the new birth center before you deliver so you feel more comfortable when you're in labor.

Best of luck with baby #1! 

~Amber

[Thebyr]

Sounds awesome. I just found out I was preggers and my OB/GYN already works in the women's clinic. I'm excited to see the new space when I go for my first prenatal appt in a few weeks. Amber - I'll be looking for a Doula that knows the midwives too - I might be emailing you! Headed to check out your site now.

[amberbirthdoula]

Congratulations! I'd love to hear from you when you start your hunt.

[Thebyr]

yeah - about that.. when should my hunt start? Maybe that's a dorky question - but I just made my first appt with the CNMs at UMICH. I go on the 27th of December. How early do you usually start seeing your patients (lol - is that even what you call them?)?

[amberbirthdoula]

I've already chatted with Thebyr, but for other moms with the same question I'd say start your hunt whenever you'd like. At least for me, the earlier I'm hired the more 'bang for your buck' you get so to speak. Having your doula picked out allows you to get to know her better before you birth and gives you someone to bounce ideas off of throughout the pregnancy. Really it's just another resource for you. But on the other end, I've been hired as late at 37 weeks before and everything still worked out great, so no stress on either end. :)