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Midwives... the Traditional Birth Attendant

Most women who choose a homebirth have midwives attend the birth. Midwives have been attending birthing women for thousands of years. They provide guidance, comfort and expertise.

Throughout our births I have had the opportunity to work with many midwives. For our four hospital births, we had CNMs as our careproviders. We were happy with the care we received for the most part at the time. Since I've spent so many years learning about childbirth practices, however, I would not choose this route again.

Midwives who practice in the hospital must follow set protocols for labor and birth. In most cases they promote the expected agenda instead of protecting you from it. In many of these cases, they have to or they don't have a job.

Motherbaby Midwifery

Of course, sometimes even when they do everything that is expected of them, they lose anyway. One of the midwives that we worked with for two of our hospital births had to stop practicing because the obstetricians didn't want to share the clientele. They stopped providing backup. Not too different from what happened when we were having our fourth child. This same midwife and her partner were fired by the OBs they worked for two weeks before I was due. One had to leave a laboring woman in the hospital because they took away their privileges.

While I don't always agree with how a CNM may practice now, I still think they are a better choice for a regular hospital birth than your average obstetrician.

When we switched to homebirth, we worked with a licensed midwife, a certified professional midwife and a traditional midwife at various births. It is unfortunate that midwifery is not legal in all 50 states. These options should be available to every birthing woman.

Some states require midwives to license with them. Others accept the CPM (certified professional midwife) credential that is given for passing the NARM (North American Registry of Midwives) exam. This exam covers a long written portion and a skills exam. Besides that, the potential CPM must have attended a certain number of births as an assistant, a certain number as the primary caregiver, and have attended a certain number of women prenatally. Some also allow traditional midwives to practice. These very special women have trained through apprenticeship and their own studying, and are attending women through their love of women, babies and birth. They carry no other credentials than the word of mouth recommendations of other mothers they have attended.

Our last midwife was a traditional midwife. I dearly love her... she got to know our entire family, and knew when to sit back and when to help. She was always upfront if an issue came up that was outside her expertise. She has been practicing for over 20 years, and I would hire her again if the opportunity arose.

In my opinion, I feel a midwife should be knowledgeable and be available for questions when they arise. She should be gentle and non-interventive unless it is truly needed.

She should recognize the signs a woman expresses as she moves through labor and know when to comfort and when to sit on her hands. She should know that just because she can do something doesn't always mean she should. A midwife should help facilitate the birth unobtrusively, as the birth belongs to the parents, not the midwife.

Medical Disclaimer

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