interviewing HB midwives

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

for those of you homebirthing and shopping for a midwife, what sort of things are you looking for? do you have specific questions in mind to ask at interviews? we have our first interview on sunday and i'm trying to get ready. i was just curious how other people are planning to handle the interviewing/hiring process. i think we're going to interview 2-3 different midwives in the area and then decide.

kate

[Jade2561]

Well, I am not exactally interviewing anyone because there is only one midwife that will do homebirths in my area. I live in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma and she is an hour and a half away. I am sooooo grateful that she will even come to attened me birth! She is very hands off and is an herbalist and has the same philosophy of birth as I do. So I'm hoping it will turn out good because really I have no other alternative.

Heres a link from gentle birth - hope it helps. http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/intrvu.html

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

thanks for the link. we are getting ready for our first interview tomorrow. i guess we are really lucky to live in this area because we have 5 CPM/lay midwives and one group of CNMs all doing homebirths that we can choose from. we are actually only interviewing 2-3 of the lay midwives because 2 of them i really don't like and the CNM practice is still very restricted by their back up OB. i just don't want anything to do with OBs if i can help it.

i think i am beginning to formulate what i want for this pregnancy and birth, so hopefully i'll be able to find a midwife who can provide just that for me.

kate

[PancakeGoddess]

I think midwives really vary in what they "require" to feel you are healthy enough to give birth at home. I'd make a list of some things you want her opinion about, such as how far past due will she go, and how early? Does she deliver breech? Does she bring an assistant? Who is her backup? Does she want to check your cervix during labor? Does she ever do AROM? Will she do water birth? Will she want to monitor you with a doppler or something else? Will she let someone else catch baby?

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

i think that is primarily my concern with who to hire. the lay midwives here run the spectrum from very medical to almost completely non-medical. i also have very particular ideas about what i want for this birth as far as specific protocols (the hazard of being a birthing childbirth educator and doula- CONTROL ISSUES! ) and i want a midwife who will let me work with her to decide prenatally what protocols i'd like her to follow. there is a very experienced midwife in the area, but she is more medical (even orders ultrasounds for her clients) and isn't very comfortable with letting mom drive the protocols. and there is a fairly new midwife who will let moms almost completely call the shots. i'd like to find the middle ground, but between the two, i'm very tempted to go with the somewhat less expereinced midwife right now. i guess we'll see what my DH thinks too after we do interviews.

[PancakeGoddess]

Yes, and of course there is also just that unspoken, irrational energy thing that happens between two people. It may be that one midwife just seems to understand you better, or you connect better. I would have a hard time with a midwife who I didn't think was really listening to me or who couldn't remember details about what I've told her.

I was actually never totally sure my midwife DID remember all the things I'd told her, but then at the time of birth, it became very clear that she had paid a lot of attention and was guarding the birth space with all of that in mind. Lovely.