The Initial Midwife Visit
Hi all,
My Midwife, DP and I are meeting tomorrow for the "intial visit". I've met her before several times so I am confident she is the one for us.
She has asked that we have some sort of plan ready tomorrow. I am guessing she means rather than wasting an hour, that we have an idea of what we are looking for from her during this pregnancy & birth.
So while I am a real go-with-flow type of person and don't really look to formalities, I've typed up this little "thingo" for her to have a read through.
Can you all have a read through and tell me if I have missed anything?
TIA!
:
Hi *****
We're Brent and Sara. This will be our first birth at home and we look forward to sharing this journey with you. We have both read your Statement of Service and are pleased that we all share a similar philosophy of birth.
This will be our 6th pregnancy (P2, M2, T1) and our third child. We have 2 Daughters, Briley (5) and Colby (4). Both girls were born vaginally at the Townsville Hospital.
We are aiming for a natural, drug-free birth. Depending on Sara's preference during labour, we would ideally like to birth the baby into water with Brent catching. We would like for Brent to announce the sex of the baby. Ideally, both of our Daughters will be present at the birth.
Antenatally, Sara has decided to provide her own care. Sara is a 3rd year Midwifery student and Doula and whilst she doesnt consider herself a professional, she does feel proficient enough to provide safe and effective care for herself and that of our baby. Should anything pathological develop at any time during the pregnancy we will notify you as soon as possible.
Whislt Sara does want to provide the majority of her own antenatal care, we do still want the opportunity to involve and form a trusting relationship and friendship with you. We believe that this is an integral part of the childbearing process. With this in mind, we have decided that we would like for you to "conduct" the following antental appointments:
25 weeks
31 weeks
36 weeks
38 weeks
40 weeks; and weekly thereafter
Sara will maintain phone, email and text message contact with you in the mean time or if any complications or emergencies arise.
During the labour and birth both Brent and I are open to going-with-the-flow. We plan to have you, a friend of Sara's, Briley, Colby and possibly ** who will be photographing and filming the labour and birth. Sara's Mum may also be present but this will not be known until a later date.
During the 3rd stage of Colbys birth, Sara experienced a retained placenta due to snapped cord during CCT. This lead to a MROP under GA and 2L PPH. We are aware that any hospital would consider this a high risk pregnancy due to this fact and would appreciate your opionions on management of the third stage. Sara would ideally like for a physiological third stage but depending on circumstances would be open to an active mangement should it be required. Whilst Sara is confident her body will do as it is supposed to, she is still quite anxious about the possibilty of a repeat experience. Your support, encouragement and advice would be much appreciated :)
Overall, we are looking forward to sharing this journey with ou and are open to suggestions regarding anything we have discussed. We are a very earthlly family and have much faith in Sara's ability to carry and birth our child with much love, care and support.
Let me know what you girls think :)
