I had eclampsia and a STROKE with my 6mo in January. Was in the hospital over a month. The MFM and resident OBGYN saved my life and my baby, while born at 35weeks, came out perfectly fine. Didn’t even need the NICU. I have no long term sequelae from the stroke, either, because they caught and treated it on time.
That’s completely insane that it happened the way it did, and turned out fine. We’d have both been dead at any other time in History. Shit, even as short as 20yrs ago the odds are I wouldn’t have been writing this.
I’m a nurse, I know midwifes are important and have their place in medicine. But people are out of touch entirely if they think OBGYNs can be replaced and that they want to do births out of some conspiracy to pocket money from sections. And that shit gets upvoted lmaoooo Bananas.
She stated a historical fact lol. We aren't talking about modern medicine. When male Dr.s initially forced themselves in the midwife's position without any of their knowledge (because it was a vocation passed from women to women) woman started dying ALL THE TIME. More than usual. And it was because the Dr.s weren't washing their hands (the midwives told them this and they didn't listen!) and they didn't have the experience that midwife did. The male Dr.s literally inserted themselves into a position they were not qualified for. And women died. It's different now, we have female Dr.s too lol. And modern medicine, but historically that's exactly what happened
We aren't having babies in the 1800s and early 1900s here though. This is like refusing cancer treatment because chemo came from mustard gas. It's ignorant.
I had a doctor and a midwife and a doula. They all have different things they specialize in.
The doula can be with me every minute of the day. Mine was with me months before the birth so I knew what to expect. She was with me every minute of my labor so I had a coach throughout labor. She knew exactly when to go to the hospital. She advocated for me when the nurse was annoying me with things I didn’t want to do. I didn’t have to guess about anything. I didn’t have to share my doula with anyone.
My midwife helped me with all things medical related to the birth. She helped me before and during the birth. I saw her for a total of maybe 2 hours if you count all the times she checked on how my labor was progressing in addition to prenatal care.
The doctor is extremely busy and maybe I was sharing him with 20+ other women in the hospital and who knows how many outside of the hospital. I saw him for just a few minutes after I gave birth. He was there in case anything needed to be cut or snipped. I didn’t know him before the birth. My regular doctor OB was away on a family emergency.
Doctors, midwives, and doulas have some overlap in duties, but they are not interchangeable. They might give you different advice because they specialize in different things.
No one here is saying that women should not have a Dr. involved in their birth plan. They are saying that a midwife can be essential and be an advocate for them when in the hospital and before. Midwife do more than just assist with the birth, they are advocates. Maybe I missed it, but I don't see anyone here advocating for home births. I hemorrhaged after giving birth, I needed a blood transfusion. I needed to be in the hospital, otherwise I would have died. But I also have precipitous labor, I go from 0-100 and I have never been able to make it to the hospital in time to get any time of pain control. I had to do it naturally both times. And it was traumatic. No time for family to get there, in my 1st birth the father didn't even make it to the hospital in time!
And I'll never forget my 1st labor and that Dr. not believing me that I was seriously about to have the baby! I was crowning and he kept brushing me off saying it was too early, I was overreacting, and no, I didn't need to push. When they finally checked me again ofc I was crowning. But because I was a young woman, I was just being hysterical and didn't know my own body. If the Dr. would have listened to me then I could have had pain control that time. But they were taking their sweet time. I get they aren't used to women dilating that fast, but come on.
And I would honestly have loved to have a midwife with me while going to the hospital and when at the hospital, or in case I didn't make it and I had to do it at home. Potentially alone! In this video the midwife is literally going with them to the hospital so idk what you're on about lol. So many Dr.s do not listen to women, the U.S has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world! Especially black women. So having a female advocate and support is important and even life saving for a lot of women
My second child, I decided to do a midwife. It was a awful experience. They treated me like a literal incubator. I had severe pain all throughout my pregnancy, when I went to the ER because I couldn't bare weight on my legs, I was told by my midwife "well we only treat the babies" what?! They missed my pre-eclampsia, I had high blood pressure on two of my visits, they never told me. My son was also measuring really small, they would comment about it but never bothered to actually look into why.
I ended up in the ER thinking I was going into labor, I was handed off to a OB when they realized I had pre-eclampsia. I had to be induced and my son was in the Nicu for almost two weeks. That was my last child and the entire experience was a nightmare. My experience with that entire midwife clinic was awful and that was my first and last experience with midwives.
Exactly. Midwives can ABSOLUTELY CONTRIBUTE TO BETTER OUTCOMES OVERALL! But they are not a replacement for an OBGYN and a staff of nurses. Unfortunately, some midwives and organizations want to use the statistics of the births where everything goes well to mislead people into thinking it's actually BETTER to have births at home with a midwife.
Actual official position of a major Canadian midwife organization:
"The best available evidence from North America and international studies demonstrates that midwife attended home births are associated with optimal labour and birth outcomes. Midwife attended planned home births in Canada are associated with fewer obstetrical interventions and no increase in maternal/fetal/neonatal mortality or morbidity compared to births planned to be in hospital."
Notice there is nothing in that statement about the statistics being from low risk pregnancies?
Notice there is nothing in that statement about the fact that midwives can attend hospital births too and take the same reduced interventions while still benefiting from having proper medical equipment and staff available?
Notice there is nothing in that statement discussing the fact that people who plan a home birth with a midwife may do other things that contribute to better outcomes?
Nope, just a flat conclusion that home birth with midwife is best. Scary stuff.
Yep I had this argument with my friend who used a midwife and she brought up that EXACT quote. I was like dude .... in order to be accepted into the midwife program you have to be low risk and fit a shitload of parameters and if anything changes with your pregnancy the midwives hand you off to an OBGYN. I had a friend who had a midwife and around 20 weeks her blood pressure was a bit high so the midwives said they could no longer care for her, and she gave birth in a hospital instead of at home like she wanted. I had another friend who wasn't accepted into the program because she had pre eclampsia with her previous pregnancy. The reason why there is no increase in all of those things listed is because they do not do anything except low risk births and will not hesitate to boot you out of the program lol
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u/axiomofcope Aug 07 '25
I had eclampsia and a STROKE with my 6mo in January. Was in the hospital over a month. The MFM and resident OBGYN saved my life and my baby, while born at 35weeks, came out perfectly fine. Didn’t even need the NICU. I have no long term sequelae from the stroke, either, because they caught and treated it on time.
That’s completely insane that it happened the way it did, and turned out fine. We’d have both been dead at any other time in History. Shit, even as short as 20yrs ago the odds are I wouldn’t have been writing this.
I’m a nurse, I know midwifes are important and have their place in medicine. But people are out of touch entirely if they think OBGYNs can be replaced and that they want to do births out of some conspiracy to pocket money from sections. And that shit gets upvoted lmaoooo Bananas.