Reply To: Midwifery in The Frozen River
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The answer for me is “Yes.” Both of my daughters were delivered with the assistance of nurse midwives. Full disclosure, my older daughter needed a slight nudge from the backup physician to finish the job but my younger daughter was born in a free standing birth center that looked for all practical purposes like someone’s home. We did not exactly have a group of women but my older daughter’s “coach” was there and my husband cooked breakfast before we headed home a few hours later.
It was a physician colleague of my husband who recommended our first midwifery practice. Nurse midwives regard themselves as companions and guides to the pregnant woman and family. I never doubted their expertise or skill. Still they approached everything from the perspective of shared decision making, not an arbitrary set of procedures or practices done because they are convenient for the midwife or regarded simply as standard practice.
Based on these experiences, the laboring mother I most identify with is Betsy Clark (minus the husband’s desire that the child be male). But her labor and birth show what the experience is like with a sensitive, attentive and skilled attendant.