Below you will find just some of the differences you might find between receiving care from a hospital-based provider and a Licensed Midwife. 

​Midwives provide the gold standard of healthcare for childbearing families.

Hospital-Based Provider

Licensed Midwife

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Routine appointments last 3-15 minutes.

Routine appointments last about 1 hour.

Routine appointments take place in your provider's office, during standard business hours.

Routine appointments may take place in your home or in our office. Evening and weekend hours are available.

To contact your doctor or midwife with an urgent concern, use an answering service and wait for a callback or​ go to the ER or Labor and Delivery.

To contact your midwife, call her cellphone directly.
​Midwives are available 24/7 for your urgent concerns. While a midwife may occasionally refer a client to the emergency room, most often the midwife will resolve the concern over the phone or do an after-hours visit to assess in-person.

Appointments follow a schedule and a script.

Appointments can be on a common schedule or on a task-based schedule, depending on your needs and availability. Visits are geared toward answering your questions, providing the midwifery standard of care, and keeping you and your family healthy and normal.

Rules and direction are routine. These rules including what you can wear, what you can drink, where you can go, and how long you can labor.

Support is routine, rules are not. Your midwife will not tell you what you "can" or "cannot" do except in some rare emergencies; your job as a parent is to make the safest decisions based on your insight into your own body and the guidance and skill set of your midwife. 

The office may not "allow" children.

All family members are welcome at your visits and at your birth. We encourage siblings to actively participate in your care, to your comfort level.

Medicines and procedures are "required", and the option to decline is an afterthought.

Medicines that are routinely recommended in pregnancy and childbirth (such as antibiotics for Group Beta Strep, or medicines to prevent bleeding) are offered, with an explanation of the benefits, risks, and alternatives. These interventions are usually offered well in advance so that a family knows what to expect and has time to ask questions, address concerns, and make a confident decision.
All procedures during the birth (including cervical exams) involve communication between the care provider and the client. Our practice is consent-driven and trauma-informed.

The doctor or midwife catches your baby.

Our midwives can help you catch your own baby, or they can assist your partner or another family member or support person to catch the baby. While our midwives love catching babies, we love it even more when we get to support others doing this and be an extra set of hands if they are needed.

The nurse or nurses provide one-on-one support periodically or continuously through your labor, and the doctor or midwife joins you to catch the baby or to help you make other big decisions about your care.

Midwives at WHMS stay throughout your labor and birth until a few hours after the baby is born. 

The doctor or midwife specializes in treating pathology.

The provider specializes in facilitating a normal, healthy pregnancy and birthing process, and identifying deviations from normal.

We are lucky in our region to have several hospital-based providers who utilize the midwifery model of care.
​If you'd like a list of recommendations for in-hospital clinicians who can help you have your dream birth, contact us today.