Kuraiza, I totally understand where you are coming from. When I was pg with my first, I had the same opinion. Nothing but an ob for me - that's where you get the best care, right? Nothing like knowing the person who will be delivering your baby, right? I get how you feel hun, I truly do. And you know what, I had a truly great ob too, one of the very best I would say! And I would still say that.

So what changed my mind about mw vs ob? My first birth actually. DS1 decided to arrive on a Friday night/Sat morning when my ob wasn't on call. The ob who was on call is also a pretty good ob, but he had already had a cs and a vb before me, and another woman in labour. The poor guy was probably exhausted and wanting to catch every little bit of sleep he could over the weekend. So, I copped the cascade of interventions.

First my waters were broken. This caused sudden, intense contractions (and I was having a back labour too for some reason). And because these pains hit while I was lying on my back being monitored, I wasn't dealing with it well. The anaestitist was there having just done a cs, and was about to leave, so I was pressured into an epidural with the "it's now or never" line and being told I would be in that much pain for at least 8 more hours (if they had read my file they would have known that my ob was expecting me to have a quick labour like my mum, and in fact I did have quick labours so the 8 hours was rubbish). So I gave in to pressure and had the epidural. I warned them I had low bp and sure enough that made it worse. Labour slowed, baby went into distress and I couldn't even raise my head without feeling like I was going to pass out. So flat on my back I pushed without feeling. I ended up needing forceps, an episiotomy, therefore stitches. I had a lot of pain afterwards from that and also other problems which I won't go into here.

Having since had a 3 hour labour in a conduicive and comfortable position, without an epidural, I know now what labour can, and should be like. And how insidious the cascade of interventions is. And this is with an ob who is definitely one of the better ones!!

Kuraiza, I truly hope that you have a better experience than me.