You've decided you want a Midwife as your provider for your out of hospital birth. Awesome, so what does that mean? Well let's break it down, as we've discovered some aren't sure what that means!
First, it means your primary provider for the pregnancy is this Midwife. Her role is to (not only) educate you on how to prepare for a natural birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum but it's also to educate families on healthy eating, what is normal vs what isn't during pregnancy and things to to avoid to stay low risk and ultimately have a beautiful experience.
Since this is something included in Midwifery Care you will be receiving childbirth education from either the Midwife you hired OR a referral to a natural minded comprehensive childbirth series (see www.midwife101.com for an online series)
Your Midwife also, as the primary provider for the pregnancy, is responsible for monitoring your pregnancy and making sure no "red flags" are presenting that would warrant further testing, referring to a specialist, or other methods of intervention to resolve the issue. During each prenatal visit whether it's via vitals, bloodwork, measurements, or Q&A, that is what your skilled Midwife is doing.
At each visit she is educating and discussing healthy eating and living during the pregnancy and analyzing stresses in your life to ensure they're not affecting your pregnancy. She is also on call for you with concerns or emergencies 24/7 to ensure you have that continuity of care. The Midwife is really getting to know you on a more personal level and you are getting to know her to feel comfortable and so your pregnancy remains low-risk.
Second, although your goal included wanting the out of hospital birth, all of these months of care and managing is trying to keep you low-risk to ensure you get that birth you want. However, her responsibility does include knowing, understanding, and respecting when the birth location might have to change for safety reasons. This skill of a Midwife being the professional in low-risk gives her the watchful eye to catch problems early and get their clients issues resolved or transferred to the right specialist for the problem at hand.
*photo credits to Paulina Splechta Photography
Midwives are responsible for a mother and a baby. This responsibility is given to providers who are properly trained, licensed, and certified so they can provide the best care to their clients.
To summarize Midwives don't just give you an "out of hospital birth" we give you full maternity care that umbrella's SO much more.
*photo credits to Paulina Splechta Photography