OB or Midwife?

[want2becrunchy]

We did IVF and transferred 2.  My first beta came back high (489 at 9dp5dt, 14dpo).  My nurse said there is a good possibility of twins.  We will confirm how many I am pregnant with at the end of November.  I have always wanted a natural birth with a midwife.  I'm thinking that might not happen if its twins.  I want the best for our baby/babies so I am willing to do whatever it take to have healthy pregnancy.

My ideal birth would be with a midwife and being monitored by a MFM (the 2 providers working together) if it is twins. 

Did anyone have a twin birth with a midwife?

Thank you (and please no flames) 

[withlittlelungs]

Right now we are with midwives and a MFM. We are planning a homebirth, but if baby A doesn't turn we will be using our MFM for a hospital birth.

[Adaline'sMama]

I'm using an Ob, seeking additional care from an Mfm who my Ob recommended, and a midwife is acting as my doula. (dem's are illegal here, so only a Cnm can work with an Ob, and ime cnm's don't offer me anything that my naturally minded Ob doesn't offer). Personally, I wouldn't go with just an Mfm as backup for birth, because if everything doesn't go perfectly, they are a lot less likely to be forward thinking about birthing options.

For example, if you risk out of your midwife's care because you develop hypertension and then it turns out that your baby b is breech, a Mfm is more likely to allow for a natural progression of labor than, say, an Ob who supports natural childbirth. Does that make sense?

[rinap]

It depends on where you are. Midwives here (hospital, birth center, or home) aren't allowed to do twins.

[Emelee]

My girls were di-di and I had a cpm and ob combo who were going to come to my house for a homebirth along with 2 extra cpms. I saw a Mfm for ultrasounds and even though they wanted me to be at the hospital they did not give me too much trouble about the choice to homebirth. Unfortunately once I got to 41 weeks my ob had to refer my care to the Mfm at the hospital and I had AROM which started labor. If I had just gone into labor naturally I would have had my homebirth.

Like others said, it depends on where you live as well as what type of twins you have. Mine were both head down and di-di so perfect for a vaginal birth. There are so many factors that you just can't predict until the end of your pregnancy but if things look good along the way I don't see why you don't try for a homebirth. Good luck!

[Gena 22]

Like Emelee, I had a CPM and an OB.  I'd call it parallel care although I didn't discuss homebirth plans with our OB.  Having different perspectives was helpful. 

Fortunately everything was fine, di-di, vertex, vertex, and our home birth was fantastic!  39 weeks on the dot.  For me anyway, homebirth was ideal.  But even with most things going smoothly (not all, they were my first), our homebirth was a direct result of having a very experienced and fantastic MW. 

MW or OB, experience counts a lot with twins.

Best wishes!
 

[jdc]

Hello everyone,

I think it's an important question.  When I found out I was pregnant with twins at 21 weeks, I almost switched from my midwife to an OB.  I'm glad I didn't because I had a natural VBAC twin birth with my midwife delivering Baby A and my "back up" OB delivering Baby B.  Both babies vaginally and without any drugs.  I wrote about it here:

http://www.multiplerealitiesblog.com/2012/08/the-natural-vbac-twin-birth.html

As you'll see if you read the post, it wasn't an easy decision for me.  Especially because I'm an "older mom" and the twin birth was a VBAC attempt, I was nervous about not having an OB.  But in the end I had just the right birth team for me, and I hope you find the right birth team for you, too!

Good luck!

Jenn
 

[Katie063008]

I'm in Canada so maybe different for most people.  Might be helpful for other Canadians (Ontario specifically).  For the first half of my pregnancy I was in Ottawa and was transferred to an OB as soon as we learned I was expecting twins.  We moved to a smaller city (Guelph) to be closer to family and happened to meet a midwife.  She said at their practice they provided dual care with an OB.  Although the OB was the primary care provider we also saw our midwife.  She was present for our birth.  The twins had to be born in an hospital.  I was very happy to receive midwifery care as midwives provide (in my opinion) vastly superior post-natal care vs. OB care.  I'm not sure why there was not dual care in Ottawa, except for speculation that the practice was very busy and they perhaps thought they would better use their resources on women not also seeing an OB.