Monday, March 15, 2010

Home Birth: Choosing a Midwife

The next step in this process, it seems, is choosing a midwife. I'm fortunate in that I have several friends who have chosen to give birth with a midwife. Only two of them, however, have chosen to give birth at home--not all midwives will attend home births. Both of my friends who are planning to deliver at home are using the same midwife. Therefore the word-of-mouth venue, at least within my immediate social sphere, yielded only one recommendation. But at least that's a start.

I searched the internet for midwives in my area. This yielded more results, but again, not all midwives attend home births. Most of the midwives I found work within medical practices with doctors and nurses, and my understanding from the websites of the practices for which they work is that they attend births in hospitals, but not in homes. I did find one home birth midwife. So I now had two names (with email addresses) on my list.

The third name on my list came from the friend of a friend. I was chatting with her on FB about my search for midwives whom I could interview, and she did a little digging, made a phone call, and got back to me with a name.

I've sent emails to these women explaining my history of early preterm labor. As of yet, I have received only one response, and we interviewed her this afternoon. I'll tell you more about that in my next post.

In the meantime, I'm very open to suggestions. If you know of midwives in my area (Lexington, KY) who are willing to attend home births, send me an email with names and contact numbers or emails.

5 comments:

Laura said...

My understanding is that Kentucky won't legally allow someone practice midwifery without a license, and yet Kentucky does not issue any licenses for midwives. Frustrating, eh? No wonder it's so impossibly hard to find a midwife in Kentucky...

Alana said...

I can tell you who NOT to hire...

Maria said...

Alana--I'm ALL ears if you want to send me an email or chat.

The Jorgensen Family said...

Maria,
I'm in the same area as you and also have been looking into midwives in the area. You might try contacting Baby Moon -they are a neat local resource for all things related to having babies. I know they at least have a listing on their website of midwives and doulas in the area (www.baby-moon.org)

I'm also interested in 'who not to hire'

Maria said...

Emily--My little one ended up being born in hospital back in June, because she came a week too early for a home birth. :-( But I was very satisfied with the midwife we hired. She was professional and knowledgeable.

George MacDonald

"Home is ever so far away in the palm of your hand, and how to get there it is of no use to tell you. But you will get there; you must get there; you have to get there. Everybody who is not at home, has to go home."

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