Welcome to our practice and congratulations on your pregnancy!
Whether this is your first, your fourth, or your fifteenth pregnancy, we know that you are excited and we share your excitement. It is an honor to have the opportunity to play a small part in the birth of your child and we feel privileged that you have selected the Fertility and Midwifery Care Center to be your partner in childbirth care. We look forward to getting to know you and your family better in the weeks and months ahead, and to help you achieve the birth experience you desire.
About Our Care Center
We utilize what is known as an “integrated model of obstetrical care.” It is unique in the region and something about which we are very proud. Our model allows you to benefit from the very best that Obstetricians and Nurse-Midwives have to offer. Unlike most practices that have both Obstetricians and Nurse-Midwives, we don’t utilize an “either or” approach to your care, but rather a “both and” approach. Through this integrated model of care our team of providers will work together with you through your prenatal visits, your labor, your birth, and your postpartum care.
It is our preference that you alternate appointments between providers so that by the end of your pregnancy you will feel equally comfortable with everyone on the team. It would be very common, in our model, for a physician and one of the Nurse-Midwives to be present at your birth. As providers working together, we can offer our patients and their families much more than we could separately.
Birth Planning
While it’s possible to have the perfect wedding where everything goes exactly as dreamed without any planning, the probability of that is rather low – and most brides wouldn’t leave such an important day to chance. The same is true of your birth. The desires that you have for your birth experience deserve some attention, some planning and some thought. To accomplish that, you owe it to yourself to learn all you can about the birth process. If you expand your knowledge base around pregnancy and childbirth, you will empower yourself to ask better questions and to make better decisions for you and your baby. Even if this is not your first pregnancy, there is always more to know; something new to learn. The best – at least the most efficient way – to accomplish this is via professional instruction.
Childbirth Classes
The hospitals in our area offer childbirth education classes at no charge. These classes are excellent, yet many of our patients find them lacking the level of detail needed to make informed decisions when planning their birth experience. If you are someone who is perhaps uncertain as to how you envision your birth, or you know you will want significant depth and detail in the answers to your questions, then you would benefit from professional childbirth education. To achieve this, we strongly suggest you contact Birth Matters, a childbirth education company that offers a variety of educational programs including Childbirth, Breastfeeding, Newborn Care, Healing for Birth and VBAC classes, Cloth Diapering 101, Baby Sign Language, and others. They can be reached at 260.415.1176 or birthmatters.com.
We feel so strongly about childbirth preparation and education that we’ve built a 90-minute seminar into our prenatal visit schedule. The birth planning seminar is held periodically for the purpose of discussing all of your questions related to your birth plan. We ask that all of our patients (and any guests they choose to invite) attend this seminar between the 30th and 36th weeks of pregnancy. By that point in your pregnancy you should have completed your childbirth preparation classes and may have a long list of questions for us. Gathering several couples together with similar questions provides a fun way to address common questions as well as an opportunity to learn from each other. It’s an interactive, educational evening so please mark your calendar now and plan to attend. We think it’s very important to your care; equally important as any of your other prenatal visits.
To learn more information about our seminars please click here.
Postpartum Care
Our concern with your well-being doesn’t end with the birth of your child, and as such we offer immediate postpartum care for both you and your baby. We know that if we can identify infant nutritional and breastfeeding challenges quickly, we can prevent more serious conditions from arising. As such, we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to see the Nurse-Midwives for mother/baby visits following your birth. It is not our intent to replace the care that your pediatrician or family physician may provide, but rather to supplement that care with the breast-feeding and well-baby expertise our certified Nurse-Midwives offer.
Circumcision
For families electing to have their sons circumcised, we offer this service in our office. Typically, circumcisions are performed in the hospital, sometimes the day after birth when the infant hasn’t yet started breastfeeding well. Parents often report feeling rushed, but have no alternative. We will perform the procedure in our office, in a relaxed, comforting setting. We use local anesthesia and parents are welcome to be present if they desire. The procedure can be performed anytime during the first several weeks after birth. Please contact us if you have questions about infant circumcision.