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I will apologize ahead of time because I know this is going to be long! My brother and sis in law are at the hospital right now, hopefully soon to be holding their new baby. She was due on January 21st. They chose to see a midwife and in the beginning they called and asked me for my advice about the midwife, to which I new nothing about. I always have to remind my family members, I'm just an MT, not a doc! I told them that if that was what they were comfortable with and it was a problem-free pregnancy, I thought that would be fine. I know more and more women are using midwives.
So, she went into labor at 35 weeks and the midwife kept her overnight at her office and apparently tried to start her labor, which I thought was strange. I was always under the impression that most midwives are not supposed to deliver a pre-term baby. However, I kept quiet. I didn't want to interfere with their choice or make them feel that they were wrong. She ended up going home because nothing happened, but she had a little bit of leakage. Apparently the leak sealed and she did fine and had no more problems with pre-term labor.
Yesterday, she went to see her midwife for her regular appointment and since the weather was really bad, the midwife told SIL to just stay and she would try to get her labor started. I guess she had her bouncing on one of those big balls and jumping on the trampoline and I'm not sure if she used medication to induce the labor or not, but she did start to have labor pains. Then, this morning, the midwife determined (by sound), since she prefers to nose use ultrasounds, that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and she wanted them to go to a hospital for delivery. The nearest hospital is about 10 minutes away from her office. However, she sent them to a hospital an hour away because she said the doctors at the nearest hospital might treat them badly because they have an access card. She did not accompany them to the hospital, and she didn't call the hospital ahead of time. When they got to the hospital, they were told that they closed their birthing unit 3 months ago, so they had to get back in the car and drive to another hospital.
I personally find this all very odd and appalling. Is it not customary that the midwife accompany the mother to the hospital in the event of an emergency? and shouldn't she have, at the very least, called the hospital ahead of time, maybe even had an ambulance transfer them? Like I said, I really know nothing about midwives. Maybe someone here does and can shed some light on this.
Thankfully, the baby's heart beat is being monitored now. I have had personal experience with the OBs in this hospital and I think they are in very good hands. Right now I am just praying that everything goes well for them. |
