Midwife Interviews

[ChocolateNummies]

Hello,

Please forgive me if this is a common question.

I'm lucky to have a number of midwives who service my area. I'm trying to narrow down who I want to interview.

For those who have had or are having a midwife-assisted homebirth, how many midwives did you interview? All of them? A select few? If you felt a connection in one of your first inteviews, did you continue interviewing others or just go with that connection?

How did you narrow down who to interview - qualifications, 'feel' of website, phone or email rapport?

Maybe it's silly of me but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with my choices right now and would like to read others' experiences.

Thanks!

Sara

[RachelGS]

Word of mouth was important to me. I asked around a lot and knew who was generally responded to very positively in my area. And we did have some questions about our midwife's views on birth,interventions, how she works, when she'd transfer, who she works with-- the logistics-- but largely for me it came down to gut feeling. My DH and I were immediately very comfortable with Paige and knew she'd be a good fit for us. There wasn't much decision. It felt right and we went with it.

[ChocolateNummies]

Ah. That would be ideal. What if you have no community to ask? I don't know anybody personally who has homebirthed. I live near a crunchy city but my hometown is more conservative. Lots of midwives service the 45 minute distance but I've always been hard pressed to find a other like-minded families who live close enough to me that we could develop a relationship. I don't know who I'd talk to.

[turtlewomyn]

If you don't know anyone IRL who has homebirthed, how about online??? Try your local tribe here on MDC, there are lots of homebirthers here! See if there are any birth networks, ICAN chapters (www.ican-online.org), women at a LLL meeting, or other groups that are natural birth minded in your area. They might have some ideas.

[sambelina]

I only had a couple choices, but I went with my gut. After a phone consult we met in person and did a consult. My dh met her at that time and we fell in love with her. She also just made us feel so empowered about homebirth in general. It was important to me that my dh feel safe and he does with her. My dh is a great judge of character, so that helped me too. I don't know how to help, but I think you'll know when it's right.

[AugustLia23]

With my 1st pregnancy/homebirth, it was hard for me to find midwives at first, I did get a referral from a midwife that I found who wasn't practicing any longer. We really liked this one midwife we interviewed, and hired her. In retrospect, I wish we had met more midwives, as we probably would not have chosen her if we really knew our choices. The birth went fine, but was more interventitive thant I wanted.

After birthing that baby, I got really involved in the midwife community in the Boston area, and got to meet all the midwives who I could use. When I got pregnant this time, I knew my options very well and made a choice based on who's practice/personality matched what I wanted. We ended up "firing" her in favor of an unassisted pregnancy/birth, but that has nothing to do with the midwife we chose.

I would definitely narrow it down to two or three and then interview them over the phone and in person. Pick the woman you like best overall.

[jerawo]

I had a ton of MWs in my area, so I knew I had to narrow them down. I talked to lots of women here, on an email list, and in real life. From that, there were four I was interested in talking to. One was on vacation in June, so she was out. One would never return my phone calls, so she was out. I thought that was so weird because quite a few women I talked to were using her and loved her. It was like she didn't like the messages I left on her answering machine, and decided she wasn't going to be my MW. I interviewed the 2 others, and while I liked them both one of them made me feel so comfortable so I went with her. Of course I moved out of the state at 6 months and had to start all over again, but it was a little easier since there were fewer choices.

[pamamidwife]

maybe check with the Finding Your Tribe forum here on MDC - there could be people on here that live in your area!

Ask questions that you feel are important to you on the phone or via email. This may weed out some prospects.

Meet with as many as you can - sometimes it's just about a "hit" you get from seeing them and talking with them in person more than anything.

Oh - and please! If you call a mw and she doesn't call you back, please call again! Twice I've had my daughter accidentally erase messages from clients to me. It's even more frustrating if I didn't have the name/number in the first place!

[ChocolateNummies]

Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions. I did post in FYT and got some help from some 'locals'. I also contacted a doula I'd taken a birthing class with and got some recommendations from her. A few names were repeated more than once so my list has now been narrowed down. A much more manageable number.

Sara