Hellobee

We had our last midwifery appointment this past week and I wanted to return and close the circle on our midwifery journey. In the end, I could not possibly imagine going another route for our care during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. The support that we were provided with from our clinic was above and beyond what we could ever have imagined or expected.

I wanted to circle back to some of the things discussed in my original post about why we chose to work with midwives, and share a reflection from the other side.

Multiple Midwives

In my original post, I said we worked with a primary and secondary midwife. Our case was a bit different in that we had two primary midwives and a secondary midwife. Near the end of my pregnancy, our secondary midwife switched, and we had another midwife, who had a student with her. In the final weeks of my pregnancy, my primary midwives would switch weekly for being on call, and I would know who would be my primary if/when I went into labour. The last thing I expected though, was that my primary would be held up in a birth and our secondary would step in! I had a brief moment of being bummed out about this, but in the end it was absolutely meant to be. They were incredible, and by the time I had progressed to pushing my primary midwife was able to join us. The support from those three ladies was certainly one of the highlights of our birth experience.

Transferring Care

One of my fears during pregnancy was that I would have to end up transferring my care at some point. While this ending up being the case, it really did not end up being something I needed to fear. After I decided on an epidural, an anesthesiologist (with his student) administered the epidural, and two nurses (one student) joined us in the room to monitor me and the baby. When my labour stopped progressing at a desirable rate, an OB joined the team rather than stepping in and becoming my doctor. Ultimately, a Cesarean was decided, and a surgeon with her crew and the anesthesiologists joined the team. My midwives never left my side. It was truly a community of support in this case, and while my care was technically transferred, in my mind, my support team just grew. I initially thought I would want a small number of people with me; however, as it turns out, I am a big fan of the more the merrier. The love and support was palpable and just kept growing.

After Care and Home Visits

I knew I would love the home visits following birth, but it never occurred to me how much I needed them. Leaving the house with a newborn seemed tumultuous on its own, let alone with a healing incision. My midwives came to our home four or five times to check-in on us. This was invaluable allowing us to have visits in the comfort of our own home. After two weeks, we started going to the clinic for visits and saw them an additional three times before our discharge appointment.

Breastfeeding Support

I don’t know where I would be in my breastfeeding journey without their support. We had issues with latching, a late milk arrival, nipple cracking and bleeding, a supply dip on one side, vasospasm and just the general learning curve that comes with breastfeeding. Having a midwife come to our home several times every few days to check in on our progress really helped us get past our challenges. When my supply dipped on one side after some favouritism, our one midwife saw us on a Saturday afternoon and recommended supplements that helped get things back on track.

The end of this journey brings a great deal of sadness, and I’m certainly going to miss our appointments with the women we built such strong relationships with. We’ve grown close to everyone we’ve worked with and not being able to see them on a regular basis (or at all!) is a bummer.

a thank-you gift for each of the amazing women we worked with

We now return to our regular family doctor, whom I thankfully love just as much as my midwives! In the spirit of small towns, our family doctor happens to be best friends with one of our primary midwives!

What did your pregnancy and aftercare look like?