First Midwife Visit

Today, the day after I got my positive pregnancy test, I went to interview the midwives closest to us. I was really impressed! First they gave me a tour of the birth center, which is lovely. When you first walk into the birth center there is a large open area that contains their office corner, a corner that is set up like a living room, and another corner of the room that is full of toys for the kids. They have a bathroom in this front area also that is mostly for the checkups but also has a big comfy tub so that after the baby is born the mom and baby can take a soothing herbal bath together. Then, down the hallway is the exam room with an extra wide table so that your children can get up there with you to “help” with the exam. Further down the hallway is a kitchen for use during labor, and down the hallway from that are There are two bedrooms equipped to birth in and then there’s the water birth room, which is where I plan to give birth. They have a big, jetted, padded tub that just looks SO perfect! There is also another bathroom at this end of the house. You can see pictures of the birth center here.


The midwives (currently a mother/daughter team) spent SO much time with me just getting to know me, answering questions, and making me feel comfortable. An average appointment at the birth center is an hour. That is not 45 minutes in the waiting room and 10 in the exam room and 5 with the doctor. That is a full hour with your midwife! Talk about personalized care! After talking to Nathan I decided to use Emily, who is graduating in February (I think) but will be under Molly’s supervision. She is super nice and very knowledgeable.

I couldn’t be happier or more excited about this experience. I am VERY excited to get to know these lovely women, to have such special care, and most of all to have a lovely waterbirth! I actually talked to Molly and Emily about having had gestational diabetes with Shane and my concerns about getting it again with this pregnancy. They said that they start off from the very beginning of the pregnancy with nutritional counseling and a lot of attention to nutrition throughout the pregnancy, as well as homeopathic remedies should it come to that and that most of the time their moms who had gestational diabetes in previous pregnancies don’t end up with it again. Yay!

I have my first appointment at on Sept 20th at six weeks. Usually they don’t schedule appointments so early in the pregnancy, as they won’t be able to hear the heartbeat, but we wanted to get started right away on the nutritional counseling. I am so excited! Shane can go with me to every appointment.  He loved the toy area and the midwives and had a lot of fun.