To Midwife??? DUH!

I am a midwife. 

I love midwives and truly believe they provide the best low risk OB care in the United States. 

So when it came to my yearly well woman exams, I wanted to be with a midwife. 

I have seen my friends go thru their prenatal care and just knew that a doctor for me was not the option unless something high risk came up. 

Unfortunately, in the Northern VA area you are quite limited when it comes to midwifery care especially if you want a midwifery practice.  I had only a couple options: 

1)      Loudoun Community Midwives in Loudoun

2)      Wisdom Midwifery at George Washington in DC. 

3)      A Practice in Alexandria which was not an option as it was a previous place of employment.

So I started my well woman exams at Loudoun Community Midwives and was happy with my care. 

So after that second line appeared on my pregnancy test, I waited two weeks before calling them to set up my appointment.   Joe and I went back and forth whether we should at least interview with Widsom Midwifery but after an afternoon of trying to figure out metro schedules from both of our jobs to get down, we said forget it.  Loudoun is an easy drive for us and my parents live 5 minutes from the hospital so we will have good support. 

The reason I picked them:

1)      It is a MIDWIFE practice- all midwives! 

They do have 2-3 backup physicians which I like.   But it is a midwife practice- not a collaborative practice with midwives and doctors where the doctors really call the shots.

2)      Low C/S rate- 

15-20 % which compared with the national average of 35 trending upward to 40% is amazing!

3)      Loudoun Hospital is smaller, more private which was a big appeal to me.  

All private rooms with both showers and tubs for labor.  As Joe constantely tell me- "You should have been born a fish!"  Hydrotherapy is my friend. 

Very low intervention friendly. 

4)      Large focus on prenatal education. 

I knew that I would not need this but I knew Joe would want it for him.  They are so good at answering all his questions and making sure even though I know what is going on that he also knows. 

5) Level 3A Nicu at Loudoun INOVA Hospital

This means that their neonatal care center can take care of a baby if born at 28 weeks or later in the pregnancy.  This is hopefully not something we will need but always good to have in your back pocket. 

Yes it is a little bit of a drive (20-30 minutes in no traffic) to my prenatal appointments but the Prenatal Assessement Center has been so willing to work with me on my Ultrasounds and screening that I have been able to schedule both on the same day - so I kill two birds with one stone.

Furthermore, I have decided to schedule most of my appointments on Mondays I have off at 1300 so I am the first appointment after lunch.