YIPPEEE!!! Great midwife news!

[mcbruhn]

So a couple of months ago I found out that the practice that I'm going to was eliminating their midwives as of August 1. I'm due October 11, so I was pretty mad, to put it mildly. My practice was the only one in town with midwives available, and no other local practice has hired the midwives who were eliminated. Well, I found out shortly thereafter that one of the three midwives in my practice was planning to apply in nearby towns. She was likely to end up somewhere between 20 and 40 miles away. I told her that if it worked with my insurance, I was planning to follow her, and also to write a letter to the current practice telling them that I was leaving precisely because they got rid of the type of care that had attracted me to their practice in the first place!

Last month I found out that she was pretty sure that she was going to end up at the nearest of the out-of-town practices, which was 1/2 hour away, and I double checked and they are a preferred provider with my insurance. My good friend had an appointment with her a week ago, and double-checked where my midwife had been hired. That was the place.

So today, I called the insurance, the practice in the nearby town, and the hospital in that town, and managed to get everything arranged! My last appointment with the local practice (with a midwife) is next Thursday (28 wks), and my 30 week appointment is Monday, August 11! It's all taken care of, except for hand-delivering my records to my new provider in August! YIPPEE! I get to keep working with midwives, and I'm able to clearly show the local practice (with my feet and my money) that it was a bad choice to get rid of their midwives! DH is totally behind this, too!

Quick postscript: Next Wednesday there is going to be a little "appreciation rally" for the midwives outside of my practice in town, with lots of moms and preggo ladies showing their support in a peaceful demonstration. I'm going, and a lot of my friends are as well.

[FancifulFanny]

That's awesome news! I'm so glad you are going to be able to continue the method of care YOU want.

[mcbruhn]

It's such a load off my mind. I've heard great things about the midwives that I'm switching my care to, and I'm glad I'll be able to support one of the local ones at the same time. I found out yesterday that I'm not the only one: one of my pregnancy exercise study trainers has a friend who's doing the same thing (she's due a day after me). I'm hoping enough of us leave to make a major statement to this practice--and to all the care providers in the area!

[noellengod]

Why would they get rid of midwives? What is their rationale?

[mcbruhn]

What I heard from one of the midwives is that there is an OB/GYN who is friends with the director, and they wanted to bring that Dr. in to the practice, but with the midwives there, they didn't have enough office space. And so when one of the four retired, and then a second one decided to move back home (issues with aging parents), they decided to just eliminate the remaining two rather than hire another one or two. Publicly, they've justified this by saying that the midwives are just not utilized by their patients, but that's just a bunch of bull. The midwives account for the delivery of about 25-30 babies a month, and about a third of the babies delivered by the entire practice, despite the fact that we're talking about 3 midwives actively working vs. about 8 OB/GYNs. Crazy, huh?

The hope is that another large local provider will pick up midwives soon. They're opening a new clinic on the 1st and all their family medicine (general practice, pediatrics and OB/GYN services) will be located there. Since the midwives eliminated by my (now former) practice were the only ones in town, I think the demand will be great to have this other practice pick them up. I know I'm just one of a number of women who have written letters to this other practice.

[noellengod]

Crazy talk. It took me a long time to find my midwife. I have to drive 35 minutes to see her, too, but it's worth it. No one in my area wants to do natural (drug-free) births, becuase they think it's weird. They will let you do one, but they don't encourage them... and I actually had a couple of midwives/OB's tell me they would give me drugs if they thought I needed it. My MW is totally in support of natural births, not just tolerating them. If you find one you like, hold on to her! The driving is worth it in the end.