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San Diego Midwife

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How to Choose a Midwife

 

Looking for a San Diego midwife? I'll tell you great ways to pick through the similarities and find the perfect midwife for you and your family.

7 Questions to Ask Your Potential San Diego Midwife 

Having a Homebirth? Here are 7 Important Questions to Ask the Midwife.

1. Are there prenatal tests you require during the pregnancy?

2. What if I refuse certain tests or procedures during my pregnancy?

3. How involved is my partner/family permitted to be during the pregnancy, labor and homebirth?

4. Do you care if I have my family with me? (more than 3-4 people at the birth)

5. How do you handle an emergency transport? Do you go to the hospital with me if my homebirth has problems?

6. Do you have a relationship with local doctors or hospitals? How do they feel about midwives and homebirth?

7. How much does everything cost- including my birth kit, renting a pool, etc.?

Did You Know... 

- San Diego Midwives (most of them) are licensed by the Medical Board of California? This is the same Board that licenses physicians.

- Licensed Midwives (LM's) carry medications for a hemorrhage?

- LM's are Neonatal Resuscitation Certified?

- LM's can utilize Erythromycin for the baby's eyes?

- LM's carry Vitamin K for the newly postpartum baby if parents desire it?

- LM's are CPR certified?

- LM's carry all the equipment to your house instead of you having to go to the birth center or hospital?

- Most LM's bring a qualified assistant with them to the birth so there are two people to take care of the two clients (mother and baby)?

- LM's can do the Newborn Screen (PKU test) on the baby? The screen is typically done on day 3 postpartum.

- LM's do complete newborn exams including weight and measurements at birth and during the first couple of days postpartum?

- LM's can suture if a mom tears during the birth? The San Diego midwife does have lidocaine to numb the area before suturing.

- Most LM's use herbs and homeopathy in addition to medications if the laboring and birthing mother desires them.

- LM's are required to have Continuing Education Units every year in order to maintain their California Midwifery License.

20 Years of Birth Stories Blog 

Come read stories about my being a midwife in a homebirth practice in San Diego. Some stories are from when I was a doula or a midwife or midwife's assistant in birth centers, but I continue adding birth stories as the babies are born.

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Should I Bring My Kids to My Prenatal Appointment? 

Kids should be a vital part of any prenatal visit, but when you are having a homebirth, I feel it is absolutely essential!

At my offices in San Diego, I've seen, over and over, the joy in children's faces as they do simple things like pull out the measuring tape or push the button to the doppler.

It really is important that kids be made a joyful part of your upcoming birth experience.

Ama Mama Midwifery - San Diego Midwife 

Ama Mama Holistic Healthcare
I'd love to share more information about pregnancy and birth with you. Come in for a free consult!

Definition: Midwife 

Wondering about the alphabet soup of letters after your midwife's name?

Here, Wikipedia explains the differences between the different types of midwives:

-(Certified) Nurse-Midwives (CNM)
- Direct Entry Midwives
- Certified Professional Midwives (CPM)
- Licensed Midwives (LM)
- Lay Midwives
- Certified Midwives (they don't mention these types of midwives, of which there are two!) (CM)

CNMs are Registered Nurses first and then they go on to obtain a Master's degree in Midwifery. They practice mostly in hospitals and sometimes in birth centers.

LMs are almost always homebirth midwives and have obtained a license by their state. Most states give the NARM exam (National Association of Registered Midwives) after the aspiring midwife has completed about three years of education and usually an apprenticeship with another homebirth midwife, but a few states have their own testing procedures.

When midwives pass the NARM exam, they obtain the national recognition of being a CPM and are permitted to add that to the initials on the end of their name.

Some midwives choose no licensing whatsoever, while others have no option for licensing (other than CNM, but they prefer not to be nurses at all) in their states, so practice either very quietly and/or illegally.

Read more information here:

Midwifery is a health care profession where providers give prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant, and provide postpartum care to the mother and her infant. Practitioners of midwifery are known as midwives, a term used in reference to both women and men (the etymology of midwife is mid = with and wif = woman).

Midwives are autonomous practitioners who are specialists in normal pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum. They generally strive to help women have a healthy pregnancy and natural birth experience. Midwives are also primary care givers providing general women's health care. Midwives are trained to recognize and deal with deviations from the norm. Obstetricians, in contrast, are specialists in illness related to childbearing and in surgery. The two professions can be complementary, but often are at odds because obstetricians are taught to "actively manage" labor, while midwives are taught not to intervene unless necessary.Wagner, Marsden. Welcoming Baby, or Not: Are men, machines, and hospitals really necessary for a healthy childbirth? American Sexuality Magazine. Accessed 3-27-07.

Midwives refer to obstetricians when a woman requires care beyond their area of expertise. In many jurisdictions, these professions work together to provide care to childbearing women. In others, only the midwife is available to provide care. Midwives are trained to handle certain situations that are considered abnormal, including breech birth and posterior position, using non-invasive techniques. In many areas of the world, traditional midwives, renamed "traditional birth attendants" by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other groups, are the only available providers for childbearing women.

In the 1700s obstetricians were referred to as male midwives and once treated patients for female hysteria.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Want to Know More? 

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Women find the experience of going to a Chiropractor during their pregnancies as one of the best things they do for themselves throughout the entire 9 month period.   Come see why!

Want to Interview Me? 

Live in San Diego?

I'd love to schedule a FREE consult with you and your family at my offices in Encinitas, California. I do travel throughout San Diego - and sometimes Riverside - County, so if you are looking for a homebirth midwife, be sure to make an appointment with me soon!

Visit me at www.AmaMama.us

Have you interviewed a midwife? 

EverythingMouse

Finding the right midwife is so important - thanks for explaining about all the different types!

Posted November 20, 2007

Related topics: San Diego Midwife,  baby,  becoming a midwife,  Health & Medicine,  more

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NavelgazingMidwife

About NavelgazingMidwife

I'm Barbara E. Herrera, Licensed and Certified Professional Midwife and own Ama Mama Holistic Healthcare.    I'm in a solo practice, but have a wonderful apprentice Donna, mom of 9. I own Ama Mama Holistic Healthcare with my partner of 21 years, Sarah Hubbard.


I've had 3 kids - one hospital birth, one unassisted homebirth and one car birth. Sarah had a hospital birth. We co-nursed and co-parented and shared parenting with their fathers. The children are now all over 21 years old.


Birth is a passion for me. I fell into it unwittingly and have found it mesmerizing for over 24 years. Counting, I am at about 900 births attended. I was a doula long before the word was created in the United States and have worked with doctors, nurses, CNMs, LMs and CMs in hospitals, birth centers and in the home - learning something different from each person I trained with and under and next to. I have learned so, so much.


I am not so arrogant as to believe there is no place for medications or physicians or hospitals. I know there absolutely are complications in pregnancies and births that require transfers of care to OBs and operating rooms. Part of my skill level is in knowing what is safe to remain in the realm of "natural" and what should be looked at with a more critical/medical eye. It is what I am hired to do. I'm very careful not to exploit the trust my clients so generously offer me. I also expect amazing amounts of trust from them, too. It is absolutely a two-way street.


Natural birth. I know a thing or two about it. Let's yack, shall we?

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