The Truth About Midwives

I have this conversation a lot. It starts off innocently enough, chatting about pregnancy and birth with a friend, finding out someone is expecting… someone asks about my experience. But once I start? I can’t stop! It’s like I’m compelled to talk about everything I’ve learned since getting pregnant, all of the research I’ve done, all of the experience I’ve had… sometimes I want to clear up the misinformation out there, and sometimes I just want to talk about it all.

Although things are starting to swing back in the other direction, for the last few generations women have opted to have their babies in a hospital environment, with doctors and nurses attending. We’ve been taught that the hospital is the healthiest, safest place to bring new life into this world, and being of the mind that Doctors really know what they’re talking about, we listen. I mean, they’re the ones who fix us when we’re broken, right?

Then there’s the other argument, the one that is immediately declared “hippie dippie” and everyone assumes anyone who makes it has armpits flush with hair and Birkenstocks are tucked safely in their closet. The argument natural home births with a midwife are the best, safest way to have a baby.

I’m definitely not “crunchy” or “granola” as some people like to refer to natural parenting… I eat at McDonalds (for shame!) and I shop at Walmart on the reg. (Not in the pajamas at noon kind of way though!) I am, however, a fairly intelligent person. I like to think that when I form an argument, or make a decision, it’s based on some kind of research or educated opinion. I don’t let popular opinion sway my judgements, because that’s just not how I roll. So, when the topic of pregnancy care comes up, sometimes people are surprised to learn that I will advocate for midwifery practice until the cows come home.

I’ve had exactly two pregnancies. The first time, I was 23 years old, not around family and yes, I’ll admit, scared shitless. I knew enough about pregnancy and birth to know that the option of having a midwife was out there, and that thankfully living in Ontario, Canada, I was able to take that option if I wanted to.

Cash was born in a hospital at 40 weeks, delivered by a
team of midwives.

After only a couple of hours of research I knew. It wasn’t hard to extract the information that I needed about midwifery care to know that it was the best way to go for low-risk pregnancies. Just like everything else that comes with modern life, for some reason the Americas have distorted pregnancy care to align with some big capitalist scheme. No I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if you take a step back it’s really not that hard to see.

Hubs, he wasn’t so on board with the whole midwife thing at first. As most people are, he’d always been taught that when you have a baby you do it in a hospital delivery room with a doctor and a big ass light shining on your hoo-ha. But thankfully he has an open mind and let me show him some of my research, and then together we rented “The Business of Being Born” and his mind was forever changed.

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Let me lay down some cold hard facts, for all you fact-loving folk:

·       Pregnancy isn’t an illness or a medical condition. It’s a part of the cycle of life. We don’t go to the doctor every time we get our period, because we don’t NEED to. If we have abnormal periods or problems with our menstrual cycle, that’s when we go to the doctor, because that’s when a doctor can actually help.

·         Doctors go to school for 87 thousand years. Okay, it’s closer to 8 (4 years, Uni, 3-4 years post-grad in med school). But how much of that time is spent focused on pregnancy and birth? OB/GYN’s are surgeons, first and foremost. And if you’ve ever watched Grey’s Anatomy, you know that a surgeon’s first instinct is “who do I get to chop up and put back together today?” As Doctor’s they are specialists who spend a brief amount of time (about 2 of the 8 years, tops!) being trained on pregnancy, but even most of that is focused on HIGH RISK issues with pregnancy, like multiple births, developmental and congenital defects and of course, the C-Section. That’s what doctors are there for! When something goes wrong and needs to be dealt with in a specialized manner.

·         Midwives spend 4 years in school. Except their ENTIRE FOCUS is on pregnancy, birth and infant care. That’s all they do, all day. They are trained to recognize problems before they even happen. They spend 2 years doing on-hand training (kind of like a residency) where they are shadowing other experienced midwives, and then they actually take over and do their own care for their last year. The hands-on training they get means that before they’re even fully-certified to practice they’ve been present at HUNDREDS of births. They’ve seen almost everything that can go wrong first hand, on top of reading it in a text book. I don’t know about you, but I know I learn much better from experience.

·         With a Doctor you’re a Patient, with a Midwife you’re a Client. Again, being pregnant isn’t an illness. It’s something our bodies are naturally supposed to do and the care that a midwife provides is representative of that. Instead of being ushered in and out of a busy doctor’s office, waiting around for your 10 minute visit and being poked and prodded while your doctor absently asks you questions about your condition, you’re welcomed into a warm environment and treated like someone who is pregnant, not sick! Midwives take extra time and care to not only assess you and your baby’s development and make sure it’s on target, but also keep you informed about everything that is going on. They teach you how to feel your baby, how to recognize your body and know what’s going on. They help you get comfortable and excited about the birth, instead of nervous about the impending pain and doom that shall befall you.

·         Midwives work in teams. When you’ve spent the last almost-10 months getting to know a doctor, seeing them every month, then bi-weekly, then week until your birth, you do so because you are building a relationship with them. So it must really suck when they’re unavailable to attend your birth and you get an entirely different person staring up your hoo-ha. With midwives, you’re assigned a team of two who take turns seeing you at every appointment so you’re on a first-name basis with each. THEN they have a secondary team (the “backup” team) who you also meet and spend a bit of time with. THEN you may even have a student midwife who works with your primary team and oversees your appointments as well. This means there is ZERO CHANCE that you won’t know and feel comfortable with the person delivering your baby. Even if your primary midwife is dealing with another client, you know the whole team. You’ll be used to cracking jokes, asking tough questions and having them put their hands in uncomfortable places, which makes the whole labour & delivery process SO MUCH easier.

·         You’re in charge. When it comes to having a midwife giving you pregnancy care, you’re in the driver’s seat. They spend a lot of time patiently informing you about all of your choices and then you decide what suits you best. Want to have a hospital birth? No problem! Want to have a home water birth? That works too! Want to have your baby in your neighbour’s back yard? They’re fine with that (within reason!) They can get you pain meds if you want them, but will also happily tell you about the risks involved with each one. There is no pressure. You decide what you want and they’ll happily roll with the punches as long as it’s in the best interest of you and the baby.

·         Post-Partum Care. When you have a doctor oversee your birth, you have to immediately change your baby's care to a paediatrician or general practitioner following being discharged from the hospital. The way that care is laid out, you are the OB's patient, not the baby. This means MORE doctor's offices, MORE travel with a newborn and MORE exposure to illness. With a midwife, however, their standard is 6 weeks of post-partum care for both you and baby. They spend the first week-to-two weeks visiting you and baby in your home and doing all of your well-check assessments there. Once you're more comfortable with travelling, you take baby to their office for both of you to have your well-checks done. An office that only caters to pregnant and post-partum women, not sick people. Once the six weeks is up, then both of your care is transferred to your family doctor and/or paediatrician at the same time.  

·         Midwifery care is cheaper. I'm lucky enough to live in a province/country where my family's medical care is taken care of. No matter which way I choose to go for my pregnancy care, I have options that are covered by our provincial health insurance. In the United States, having a low-risk regular pregnancy, just like women have done for thousands of years, can cost upwards of 6, 7, 8 thousands dollars. Standard midwifery care is in the 5-thousand range and is finally starting to be recognized by some insurance companies. Have a high-risk pregnancy? Expect to have to pay deductibles for care ranging from $13K - $50K depending on the amount of surgery/care you need. No wonder the C-section rate has gone up so much in the last 20 years! The doctors stand to make A LOT more, don't they?


Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it's hard to ignore the facts. Ultimately a midwife's goal is to ensure that you're comfortable with your choice. Every situation has a possibility of going wrong, but opting to have a midwife provide care during pregnancy won't change the outcome.

What's your opinion on midwives and midwifery care? Did you use one? Share your experiences!