There is a midwife practice that is literally one mile from my house. I always assumed that if ever I were to get pregnant, this group is who I would see for the birth of my baby. Allen and I haven't wanted to get too far ahead of ourselves with this pregnancy, though. I had a miscarriage in the past and I didn't want to make plans if this was going to end badly.
Happily, we've made it through several milestones: seeing (and hearing!) the heartbeat on ultrasound, hearing the heartbeat with a Doppler machine, and making it out of the first trimester. So, I called the midwifery practice to make my appointment to tour their facility and join their group. Then I found out that they only take 25 deliveries per month. And February is booked solid. In fact, I'm number nine on the waiting list, so there are 33 women ahead of me who are having babies in February! Who are these women who so cavalierly make midwife appointments before the first trimester is over?? Probably women who have either had no problems, or who use that practice as their regular OB/GYN care... But seriously?! I called just before I hit 12 weeks, so a bunch of these women must have called at week 8... Or 4! I'm wishing I had right about now.
The only other midwife practice I could immediately find in the area is affiliated with GW University. I had to leave a message on an answering machine, which doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. It's also kind of far from us (but at least metro accessible), and seems to be part of the physicians group at GW. It's also a teaching practice, from what I can gather... I don't really have a problem with that aspect, but I like to minimize the number of people who stare at my lady-bits. (Probably have to get over that for birth in general, though, huh?) Since I don't trust voicemail - it seems to be a dumping ground for people who never actually get a call back nowadays - I sent an email as well. I got an email back with attachments to read over to help me determine if I was a "good fit" for their practice. While I generally conform to their health guidelines, I found the experience a little off-putting. And when I emailed back to ask questions about occurrences of c-section and such at their practice and at GW Hospital, the response was "you are asking the right questions. I don't think our practice is for you but come to our info session." Um... Thanks but no thanks.
Once I actively searched Google for 'CPM' instead of 'CNM', I found a few more practices. (CPM is certified professional midwife, CNM is certified nurse midwife.) One or two were a little to crunchy for me, given their websites. The third looks promising. They opened a new birthing center in June, have operated in the DC metro area since 2005 (when legal statutes changed to allow midwives to practice in VA), called me back immediately when I called, and in general seemed really responsive to my questions and concerns. They were also really surprised and amazed that I was a homebirth baby. We're going to an info meeting at their practice on Thursday, and I'm hopeful that they'll be the ones we'll end up with in the end. Otherwise, we're kind of running out of options...
Open letter to Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein: I know you guys are making a sequel to "The Business of Being Born", and I think you should come to DC and help me find a midwife!
I just read a blog entry of a natural birth story in a hospital with a midwife, perhaps if you and the midwife agree on the birth plan the hospital won't interfere. I read s's previous blog but i think she wrote a good bit about her pregnancy that may be interesting.
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