What is a Midwife?
What is a Midwife
The midwives at Natural Birth Center & Women’s Wellness are all certified nurse midwives (CNMs). CNM’s are licensed healthcare practitioners educated in the two disciplines of nursing and midwifery and are board certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB). Their in-depth educational preparation enables them to provide a wide range of services to women throughout their lifetime from puberty through menopause. CNM’s are best known for their specialization in prenatal, labor, birth, and postpartum care with a focus on healthy, lower-moderate risk women. However, midwives also provide primary healthcare to women including: gynecological exams, family planning and contraceptive management, preconception care, menopausal management and counseling in health maintenance and disease prevention. Nurse-midwives may work closely with obstetricians, who provide consultation and collaboration to patients who develop complications and are higher-risk. CNM’s are able to prescribe medications as licensed by the California State Board of Nursing and are independent health care providers.
Read below for the unparalleled care and respect you will receive at the Natural Birth Center and Women’s Wellness!
Midwives Model of Care
Holistic Care
- Gentle, nurturing care that respects you, your family, and your beliefs
- Informed decisions and realistic expectations of childbirth
- Honors your birth wishes and welcomes any family and friends to your birth
- Freedom from restrictions, ability to move, eat, bath, and birth in the position that feels natural to you
- Allows the birth process to unfold as nature intended with little to no intervention, while supporting the power of the female body
- Respect for the birth process as it unfolds uniquely each time. Although amazing, being pregnant and giving birth are normal life processes for which a woman’s body is well-designed
Personal Attention
- Prenatal visits that allow plenty of time for questions and answers
- Meaningful discussions to explore your unique relationship to pregnancy and help resolve fears and concerns
- Caring attention to develop a trusting and nurturing relationship that can help you to labor and give birth naturally and safely
Informed Care for Moms and Families
- Evidence-based education for prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care
- Health tips including appropriate exercises, meaningful diet, supplementation that is unique for your lifestyle
- Up to date information about any recommended tests, procedures, or treatments so you can make informed choices
- Experienced based suggestions to navigate hospital policies to ensure a birth that is more natural, safe, and respectful of your birth plan
Appropriate Monitoring
- Regular and thorough check-ups for you and your baby throughout your pregnancy, during labor, and after the birth to make sure everyone is healthy and happy.
- Recommends diagnostic technology when appropriate
- Preparing for the unexpected and for the rare emergency
- Expertise in normal, natural childbirth and recognition of normal variations
- Trained in handling deviations from normal and higher-risk situations
- Expertise in recognizing early signs of conditions that may indicate a medical condition or complication requiring consultation, collaboration, or referral with our obstetrician colleague.
Confidence in Your Body
- Discover your own body’s ability to give birth, in its own way and in its own time
- No routine treatments or arbitrary timetables that can interfere with your body’s healthy process of laboring and birth
- Truly individualized care, privacy, and natural childbirth
- Support for doing the work of giving birth. Rather than someone else “delivering the baby”, you are empowered to give birth to your baby!
Natural Techniques for Comfort
- Helping you cope with the discomforts of labor
- Midwives have found that encouragement, massage, relaxation, laboring in water, change of positions, homeopathic remedies and being surrounded by love are often very effective in minimizing pain or discomfort
- Encouraging the natural progress of labor and helping you give birth to your baby gently and lovingly
- Avoiding risks to yourself and your baby that are associated with many standard medical interventions and hospital protocols
Caregiver Who Stays with You
- Midwife means “with-woman”, and we stay true to that meaning
- Attentive, sensitive care and emotional support in tune with your needs throughout labor
- More frequent and personalized postpartum care to ensure successful breastfeeding, bonding, and transition to motherhood
- Midwives provide care for women throughout their lifetime. The joyous birth of your baby is just the beginning of our lifelong relationship!
We encourage you to continue your own education. Here are some places to start!
