Midwives are Amazing

Today was our last home visit with our midwife, Grace.  We still will be seeing her for the first 6 weeks of Quinn's little life but our other visits will be at her office.  Today's visit was great for Quinn as she's gaining weight and her vitals are all perfect!  Today's visit ended up being more of a day-long visit though so that Grace could help me with nursing.  Her help was absolutely invaluable! Plus she called to check on me tonight and is going to check in again in the morning as well.  She's been available by page for any nursing questions as well night or day.  Which when you're stressing about it is an amazing thing to have to be able to ask someone!

Midwives are worth their weight in gold! Not only for the visits leading up to the birth - you see them on the same schedule as you would see an OB and they do all the same tests as an OB, and not only for the birth - you have 2 midwives present for the birth, your primary takes care of you and delivers the baby and the second midwife is there for the baby to do the newborn assessment, but for the 6 weeks post-birth care which is inclusive of nursing.  Having Grace come to the house for the first few days is also great since it's been taking a while to really be able to get up and move around well.  Needless to say I'm going to be really sad when all of our visits are over, but I know that Steve and I will always use a midwife for any other children that we have!  The experience has been so personal.  I really like the fact that you know who will be there at the birth of your baby and that the person knows you really well.

I find it really unfortunate that midwivery care isn't widely accepted or that funding is cut.  It's truly a shame that not all mothers (and fathers) are able to experience the care of a midwife - at least to have the option between midwifery or OB care.