Where do you live?

[brandybehr]

I was reading replies by people and differences in what is available in the area you live and just thought I would ask everyone...

Where do you live?

What is the birthing community like in your specific city?

What types of care are available?

Are they funded (thru provincial care or insurance)?

[s_kristina]

I live in south Louisiana, USA. The birthing community sucks here to put it mildly. The hospital where I had my dd does a couple things good, but the bad far outweighs the good. I am not sure if there are any birthing centers in the state there may be over in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, but that would be far too long a drive while in labor. I know there are at least a couple home birth midwives, but you have to know who to ask to find them. The hospital I will be at this time around appears to be a bit more friendly and I am going to have a midwife instead of an ob. I am currently on state insurance thanks to dh's boss cancelling employee insurance, but most insurance is private.

[brandybehr]

I have a friend in Munroe (LA) that is a student midwife, is she at all near you?

I am in Northern Alberta (Canada). There are midwives in my province, they are regulated, but not funded, so their fee is an out of pocket one. Unfortunately where I live there are no midwives and in the past they have been willing to drive from where they live (closest is 4-5 hours drive) but this time I have been turned down. Our city is limited in choices, there are 2 OBs that catch, that is it. I am not up for a hospital birth this time, so I am planning an unassisted...

[s_kristina]

I think Monroe is about a 4 hour drive from where we are. {dh says more like 5 hours} I would have to ask my dh to be sure though since he is the one with relatives up there. I'm originally from Michigan although I have lived in the south for almost 5 years now. The midwife I am going to is about a half hour drive so not too far unless labor goes super quick. I'm actually pretty excited about the hospital the midwife delivers at. Since my dd was born they have made a huge push to be more baby friendly and their small birthing unit is supposed to be great. We used to live about an hour from this hospital and I would joke to my dh that I wanted to go there if we had another kid :LOL I can't believe it actually worked out that I will be going there!

[BensMom]

I'm in Atlanta and our area is a mixed bag. It's traditionally pretty unfriendly to natural birth. The biggest birthing hospital in the area has a horrid C-section rate (40+, I think) and terrible policies. As a doula, I dread stepping foot there, but they have the reputation as to being *the* place to have a baby in Atlanta. :shake

There is another up and coming hospital that is the only one that offers waterbirth. The MWs in that practice are great, and their Csection rate is very low. But they also practice with OBs and sometimes they can assert pressure on the patient to have interventions.

Most other hospitals are somewhere in the middle. Your expereince can be wonderful or barbaric - depending on your provider and the OB nurse. I don't recommend anyone who wants a natural birth in Atlanta to try without a doula. It's not easy!

As for homebirth, we are one of the alegal states, so its risky for the HB MWs to practice. But luckily, we have a great community of MWs who do it anyway, and I plan to have a HB with this baby. I am also trying to get active in the efforts to change the legislation.

Oh, and there are no birthing centers in the entire Atlanta area. Isn't that a travesty for such a large city?

[mommy2boys]

We live near Panama city florida. Its a pretty mainstream place to have a baby. In Florida it is state law that insurance is required to pay for a homebirth, unfortunatly there are none in this area willing to do it. There are high C-section rates at the hospital I will be delivering at but I can be assertive and have had normal labors so hopefully I won't have any problems. Ideally I would have a home water birth, or at least deliever at a birth center. Unfortunatly I can't afford to pay for a midwife to come from Tallahassee (the nearest) to deliver my baby and there are no birth centers near us. So we will do the best with what we've got, I joke to dh that maybe I will just accidentally wait to long to go into the hospital.

[willemsmamma]

We live in upstate South Carolina but will be moving to the Philadephia suburbs in May or June. :eyesroll There are a few midwives around here and all but one are by the book meaning they'll drag you to the hospital if all isn't textbook or if it takes longer than the law allows. Other than that it's pretty mainstream here, I think the Csection rate is about 33% most of them being elective. :angry
We had a laymidwife for #1 so she let me labor the full 30 hours I needed. I was on Medicaid then in case of an emergency.
I know up in Philly I'll have a few other choices and that there are more midwives to choose from up there (or so I've heard). So I guess we'll see. I'm not really too concerned about it just yet. :shy

[Belleweather]

I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. For a really progressive University town, the birthing community here is positively primeval. There are three main hospitals that do maternity... two of them are okay; high C-Section rates, very interventionist, but they have CNM's on staff, and will let you bring in Doulas and what have you. The other hospital, St. Mary's, is SCARY backward. They're still doing shaving and enemas, episotomy is a routine of care, they still take all babies to the nursery, and they really discourage working with labour support.

Which hospital does my insurance cover? St. Marys, of course.

Luckily, there are about 5-6 good Homebirth midwives in town, and a recently opened free-standing birth center, which is where I hope to deliver. The attitude in the medical community about the opening of the birth center was so negative that they actually had to go outside of the city to a smaller town to find an OB willing to sign off on their standards of care! Also, the majority of the big players in the insurance industry won't cover home birth or birth center birth. We're still not 100% sure how we're going to pay for a non-hospital birth, but luckily Medicaid pays part of the costs and we'll work something out for the rest of it.

[FillingMyQuiver]

Hi all :wave I live in Piscataway, NJ. We're a pretty mainstream state, not very AP friendly and the options as far as birth are not that great. There are NO free-standing birthing centers around here, I think there's 2 attched to hospitals. The one I would consider is about an hr. away :irked: , the other I wouldn't even dream of stepping into b/c it's in a high crime area.

The hospitals vary greatly, my last birth w/ DS was okay. The hospital was wonderful in that it was baby friendly. We roomed in, had a LC come stop by, etc. My actual L/D left something to be desired though. DH and I are looking into a home waterbirth at my ILs w/ a MW for this pregnancy. I'm still trying to work him over :wink Some of the hospitals in the area still follow the old rules of baby in the nursery, laying on your back for delivery, high C-section rates, etc, but I would NEVER choose one of them :shake

Insurance will cover a hospital birth (once my DH gets another job, he was just laid off yesterday :irked: ), but I don't think it will cover a MW for a homebirth :angry, so that'll be out of pocket.

[MamaFern]

i live in BC, CANADA..

its a pretty great place if you want to have natural births. there are tons of midwives, lots of great birthing centres and midwives are payed for by medical (which is free if you have under a certain income, and then pretty reasonable otherwise) there are a lot of mommas having babies naturally, whether at home or in hospitals or birthing centres.. like anywhere, there are crazy conservative minded people, but for the most part i find people really respect and believe in natural birth..

[mamatoady]

I live in Traverse City, MI and I think we have a very mother-centered birthing community. There is a ton of support for whatever birth you decide to have. I know of a handful of lay midwives and nurse midwives and there are also a lot of OB's. The birthing center at the hospital is very nice,kind of like a motel room. All the equipment is hidden. There are only a couple doctors in town who are known for being supportive of homebirth and the rest will drop you like a rock if you say your having a homebirth. Homebirth runs around $1800 here.

[s_kristina]

Hey I was born in Traverse City! My dad was a pastor in some podunk town if it even was a town when I was born. We moved around to a few other podunk towns while I was growing up and I haven't been further north then Bay City since 98 or so. I'm pretty sure my parents have been up there more recently then that and they would love to retire in that area don't know if that will ever happen or not. I would love to take my family up there at some point, but it will be a year soon since I have been out of south Louisiana so I don't think it will be any time soon.

[PM]

Well, here in Kyrgyzstan the birthing community is non-existent! The hospitals are very poor and there is no neonatal emergency service. Therefore, I'm going back to Paris to give birth. In Paris, the clinics are over-medicalized, very interventionist. But I got a spot in the most natural-friendly clinic. Should be okay. Everything's covered there, but you have to have three u/s and monthly visits (documented) for the birth to be covered.

[ElysiumToDust]

Atlantic City, New Jersey...but hopefully not for long.

[PM]

Just read through the whole thread.

I have never in my life heard of an elective C-section! How utterly strange.

even dream of stepping into b/c it's in an inner city area.

What on earth? Could you explain?

[bklynmum]

I am in London UK.

There is a mixed bag of birthing options from one extreme to another. Of course being such a big city there are loads of hospitals. All medical is covered when you are pregnant here, you get free prescriptions, free dental and free birthing for the whole 9 months and until the baby is one.

Last time I started out care in a reccommended hospital but realised very late that the staff were stretched and wouldn't be able to provide adequate care and also were very likely to want to use intervention. I switched pretty last minute to wanting a homebirth.

HB is provided through the hospital. they have teams of midwives that cover areas. So depending on where you live is the team you get. there is no choice but all of the MW that I met where amazing. The other downside is that you won't necessarily know the mw that turns up it just depends who is on shift. Also if there are too many women delivering in the hospital you might have to go in instead...but it is all free.

There are private birthing centers but they are along way from where we live and very expensive, the mw from there also do hb but again very expensive.

The other great thing about the system hb is that a mw will come and visit you for a week after the birth to check the baby, a doctor comes the next day to sign off on the birth and if there are any problems they come for a longer period. My DS had a little jaundice so the mw came by everyday for 2 weeks. I never once stepped foot in a doctors office or hospital...fantastic...so that is what we are aiming for this time!

I hope you all find what you are looking for.....


:D

[FillingMyQuiver]

What on earth? Could you explain?
The inner city where the birthing center is has EXTREMELY high crime rate (I grew up in the next town over, so I am very familiar w/ the area). There are daily drive-by shootings, bomb threats, etc. It's not uncommon to pass a person on the street w/ a visible gun. There have been occurences where innocent bystanders have been shot and killed by stray, ricocheting bullets. I could not in good conscience give birth at the birthing center and walk outside w/ not just my nb, but my older DS. It's not a risk I'm willing to take.

I really should have clarified in my OP, but DS was cranking at my feet so I had to get my thoughts out fast. Sorry. No offense was meant by it :love

[PM]

Ok, cool. Crime-ridden neighborhood or dangerous neighborhood might have been better choices. :)

[FillingMyQuiver]

Ok, cool. Crime-ridden neighborhood or dangerous neighborhood might have been better choices. :)
Thanks for pointing that out :wink I edited my post :thumb I should have thought of that, too :duh. I grew up in that kind of neighborhood and I hated when people would say I was an "inner city kid". I would never dream of trying to make an assumption like that, thank you for pointing out my mistake :love

[PM]

Thank YOU for being such a good sport!

[hypatia]

I am new to Indianapolis, and just discovering the birth scene. There is a handful of homebirth midwives (DEMs and CPMs) who people just love. Then, there's a birthing center, which (for reasons that are still not clear to me) inspires a lot of ill feelings in the AP community. I don't know that much about the hospitals, but one of them has free doulas for all.

[Awaken]

Hi- I'm in the Washington DC area. It's pretty mixed here, too. Of course you have your mainstream hospitals who do everything the medical way. We also have a few freestanding birth centers (where I had ds and plan to have the next one), midwife practices who deliver only in hospitals, and one midwife practice that does homebirths. There are also some lay midwives who do HB but it's pretty underground. In my particular community, it is quite crunchy, so most of my mommy friends use the birth center or lay midwives.

It is frightening though, many of the birth centers have shut down, and many hospitals have fired thier midwives. The climate is pretty tough for midwives here which scares me b/c I don't know what I'd do without them!

mamtoady- we lived near Traverse City for a while, I stayed in Interlochen while my husband took some classes. I'm glad to hear it's so mama-friendly there!

Zack419- I'm an 'inner city kid' too :) I'm from Philadelphia.

[bluebottle]

hi. i'm alison and i'm new to this thread..

i live in malmö, sweden (15 mins from copenhagen).

i am just finding out about the birthing community. i don't know. what little i know is: you are assigned a midwife who you see (quite often) throughout your pregnancy. you only get an MD if something goes wrong or if you request one, though you do have i think 1 or 2 MD visits throughout the pregnancy. at the same place that you see the midwife you can see therapists or psychiatrists, go to parenting classes, etc etc. when it's time for birth you go to the birth center at the hospital and are delivered by the midwife on duty. again, only an MD if something is wrong. at the birth center they have a lot of things that are considered pretty "natural-birth" in the US, pain relief methods and so on. well, pretty much everything would be considered unreasonably crunchy to say, my mom, right down to the drawings of the naked lady in labor being supported in varous walking, squatting, and sitting positions by a partner given to us in the government "you're going to have a baby!" brochure. anyway i think that the community here is quite good, especially compared to the mainstream US community (which is all i really know from before).

everything related to mother and child care here is free until the child is 18, covered by the state's health care system. the only things i would have to pay for are if i wanted an ultrasound printout (~$10) and if my partner wanted to stay overnight with me at the birth center after the birth (~$15/night).

that's all i can think of. hi, everybody!

[FillingMyQuiver]

It is frightening though, many of the birth centers have shut down, and many hospitals have fired thier midwives. The climate is pretty tough for midwives here which scares me b/c I don't know what I'd do without them!


Zack419- I'm an 'inner city kid' too :) I'm from Philadelphia.
:wink Hmm... that is pretty scray that the MWs are being fired :irked: My mom lives in VA and it's my understanding that midwifery is illegal :scratch Some one correct me if I'm wrong though. We have family friends that did HB and legally, the dad "caught" the babies according to the birth certificates :shrug

[Awaken]

you are assigned a midwife who you see (quite often) throughout your pregnancy. you only get an MD if something goes wrong or if you request one, though you do have i think 1 or 2 MD visits throughout the pregnancy. at the same place that you see the midwife you can see therapists or psychiatrists, go to parenting classes, etc etc.
everything related to mother and child care here is free until the child is 18, covered by the state's health care system.

Oh my gosh, that is INCREDIBLE Alison! Sounds like the way things SHOULD be! I can't even imagine anything like that here in the US. Pathetic, isn't it.

[SoggyGranolaMomma]

I'm in CT. It's kind of a challenge to get the birth experience you want. You have the option of going with a midwife homebirth, which usually isn't well recieved if something goes wrong, a midwife attended hospital birth, where the practice is dictated by hospital policies and not by the midwives and moms, or an OB attended birth in a hospital. There is one really great free-standing birth center in Danbury CT but it's more than an hour away from me. :irked:

I feel that the OB practice that I am in is as crunchy as an OB group can be. They are very hands off and the hospital is a WHO baby and family friendly hospital.

[emomama]

we live in rockford, il and as far as my experience has gone.. it's pretty much a typical fairly high c-section rate, lots of medical intervention type of city. it's hard for me to judge though because my last two were twins and i had a c-section due to them being breech/transverse and my doc wasn't willing to even really let me try although she was great in every other aspect of my pregnancy...

this time around should be interesting since we've had a rough couple of years and have no health insurance and so are on public aid... i really have no idea yet where i can go and what services it will pay for other than a regular ob/gyn and a hospital birth. i tried to talk to my caseworker about it and she looked at me like i was insane and told me to find a good doctor and not do anything crazy. oooookay. :irked: i've also found out that doctors can refuse to treat me because i'm on public aid so i have to find someone who will deal with poor folk like me... it's really unfortunate how this whole system is set up although in some ways i'm glad i'm in it because i now see first hand how the other half lives and i can't believe how much i took a good job and good health insurance for granted! anyway, i think the solution here is to pick up and move to sweden. what an idea! a health care system that actually takes care of people! why doesn't the US catch on to this?? soooo jealous of you, bluebottle! :D

[bluebottle]

Oh my gosh, that is INCREDIBLE Alison! Sounds like the way things SHOULD be! I can't even imagine anything like that here in the US. Pathetic, isn't it.

i know, it's great. i would have never had a child in the US, both because of the birth climate and, well, the post-birth climate. it wouldn't have been possible for me emotionally or economically to manage a pregnancy and a birth and a child there with the life that i want.. especially after seeing the options here. this pregnancy means that i am sort of "stuck" in sweden for at least the next several years, which scares me sometimes.. i mean, i hadn't really meant to permanently permanently move here.. but now that we're having a baby there is no question in my mind that this is where i want to be for at least the first years.

going back to the lovely crunchy center tomorrow to see the doctor about the crazy vomiting..

xoa

[Awaken]

this time around should be interesting since we've had a rough couple of years and have no health insurance and so are on public aid... i really have no idea yet where i can go and what services it will pay for other than a regular ob/gyn and a hospital birth.

emomama, you would think that they would WANT you to use a midwife since they have less intervention and lower c-section rates, therefore costing THEM less! I hope you find someone good :)

[Jacqulyn]

We are in Lincoln, NE. NO homebirths allowed. There are 5 midwives in the city and I will be using the same one as last time. I really, really like her. No birthing centers, but the hospital here has a GREAT L&D floor. Brand new facility with two person jacuzzi tubs in each room, beautiful hardwood floors and an incredible view. I love being in the hospital last time. It was such a relaxing atmosphere. The nurses are really good about not pushing meds and such. Not bad at all.

[PicnicBear]

I'm in the Chicago suburbs and will be using Homefirst -- a group of MDs that does homebirth. I have seen them metioned at Mothering before so some of you may be familiar with them. My HMO that I have through work covers it totally so I feel very fortunate. It's my first birth and it seems this options makes everyone happy -- me because of the homebirth part and family because of the MDs. I know it's most important what I want but it is nice to not have to constantly defend my decision to give birth at home.

[flapjack]

Another Brit, and we have similar care to Brooklynmama- except that in Colchester, ante-natal care is provided by a team of midwives who try to rotate ante-natal visits within the team so you meet all 8 midwives, and so you've at least met the midwife delivering your kid- though you have one name to contact in between visits, should you be concerned about anything. The hospital has strange rules and regulations- for instance, for a water birth, they won't allow you to enter the birthing pool until you're already fully dilated- and the neighbouring one lost a newborn to MRSA infection a few days ago, so this one will be born at home.

[Queen of Cups]

I live in a Kansas-side suburb of Kansas City. I would say that natural childbirth is pretty uncommon here (I've heard epidural rates are at about 95%), but I think the hospitals in the area are great. The hospital I delivered at last time and will be at again was wonderful: rooming in was expected, every nurse who entered the room ask how breastfeeding was going and offered to help me, the LC stopped by twice in the 30 hours I was there after birth and called my house several times over the next two weeks to see how it was going for me, I didn't have to have an IV or shave or enema, no one at the delivery had to wear scrubs (DH and my sister were barefoot!), I was allowed to walk around and labor however and whereever I wanted, because of some breathing problems DS was taken to NICU for observation - but I was able to hold him first and DH was with him the whole time, no one offered me meds during labor, and fetal monitoring was done intermittently (until they found meconium when my water broke - then the monitoring was constant but of course external), and every nurse who entered my room during my whole stay made a point of telling me that she read my birth plan. The L&D room was also lovely, with wood floors, panels that the equipment hid behind, dim lights, and a big window with lovely curtains.