[Papu]

hullo everybody!

Looks like my wife is pregnant - hurray for us.

I just wanted to check what we have to do now... anything? or just wait till the baby pops out?

cheers,

papu

[Georgebulldog]

Congratulations

Only advice I can give is get a midwife straight away as they are always a bit difficult to get hold of

Best of luck

[Scotty69]

Congratulations :nice1

[JandM]

Congratulations!

My d-i-l had various pre-natal check-ups, pregnancy advice, birth preparation, and babycare classes. I THINK the first access to these was through her GP once she'd confirmed the pregnancy.

[dilanium]

Congratulations!

[BkyMonster]

Start calling midwives. They will meet with you and begin arranging all the prenatal care you will need as well and inform you of classes, birth centers etc.

[batgirl1001]

I'm curious. Why the practice of midwives? Are they specially trained for childbirth or prenatal checkups over doctors?

What about obgyn?

Normally I am used to obgyns for my routine checkups (which includes ultrasound scanning every visit to check baby development) and then a specialist for checking congenital birth defects etc.

Are these expensive in NZ?

[Georgebulldog]

If you do a search under pregnancy you will see lots of info on the topic, sorry don't know how to put them in but midwifes do all the pre & post checks & sorts out all the blood tests & scans for you. Mine did home visits too which was handy but as I said it has been covered lots before & there's loads of info on here

[clairelouise]

Congratulations on the soon to be new little person! :D

[Swedenz]

I'm curious. Why the practice of midwives? Are they specially trained for childbirth or prenatal checkups over doctors?

What about obgyn?

Normally I am used to obgyns for my routine checkups (which includes ultrasound scanning every visit to check baby development) and then a specialist for checking congenital birth defects etc.

Are these expensive in NZ?

Not sure about NZ, but in Sweden all the pregnancy care is with a midwife, right through to the birth. You only see a GP/doctor if there are any complications.

I think it works really well here as the midwives have a friendly non clinical approach.

Congratulations Papu!! :clap

[James 1077]

I'm curious. Why the practice of midwives? Are they specially trained for childbirth or prenatal checkups over doctors?

What about obgyn?

Normally I am used to obgyns for my routine checkups (which includes ultrasound scanning every visit to check baby development) and then a specialist for checking congenital birth defects etc.

Are these expensive in NZ?

Most countries see pregnancy as not being a medical condition so you only need doctors if there are any complications.

The US is different - not sure why!

[andrewp]

Woohoo - congrats!

[TheNaylors]

Congratulations :clap:cheers:clap

[batgirl1001]

I am not critical of midwives but I am wondering if they have the neccessary qualifications to handle childbirth especially in cases of complications. Imho, it is a strange practice to have someone who is not exactly a doctor be there for you in one of the most important and perhaps frightening moments of your life.

What about drugs? Wouldn't you need an anaesthesiologist to administer epi during the childbirth, if required? I used it. Is a midwife capable?

To relate my own childbirth experience, the obgyn had to use a vacuum pump for 10 mins to pull my baby out because her head was too big. I am not sure that a midwife would be able to do that if the same thing happen to me again.

Also a friend of mine was going through a normal childbirth when suddenly she develop complications when the baby defecated while in her early contractions. She had to do an emergency c-section. Another relative of mine develop high blood pressure doing childbirth and had to be monitored regularly by nurses. She had her obgyn on standby for 16 hours.

Could a midwife handle such complications when it arises?

I'm kinda worried because I am thinking of No. 2 to be born in NZ.

And Papu- congrats and sorry for hijacking your thread :)

[dilanium]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand just because there's a midwife it doesn't mean you're giving birth at home. I believe that most people still give birth in a medical facility so if there are complications there are other people there to help.

[JandM]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand just because there's a midwife it doesn't mean you're giving birth at home. I believe that most people still give birth in a medical facility so if there are complications there are other people there to help.Quite right. And/But, just in case this is one of those cases of language difference for Batgirl, a midwife isn't just anybody - it's the term for a highly qualified nurse practitioner, specialising in pregnancy and birth care, well able to cope with all normal and many abnormal birth situations.

[willow]

Bat girl

A midwife trained to uk/nz/au standards and european standards are seen as the experts in "normality". it is said that a midwife is trained to the same level of expertise as a registrar (which is one down from a consultant). I am a midwife and I have been trained and had experience in dealing with all types of obstetric emergencies. An experienced midwife is a awe inspiring thing to see, believe me! the only thing i couldn't do is a c section and forceps deliveries. it is very different in the US, more clinical and associated higher levels of c sections/interventions. As a midwife I regularly had to work with doctors as an equal and at times guide them. Midwives are held in very high esteem and deliver high standards of care to women and their babies.

Just to confuse you even more, I work with two male midwives!!

[Georgebulldog]

In my tour of the hospital I was shown one of the rooms I would deliver in & then taken to another & told should any need of intervention arise I would be moved there where a Dr would also be.

Must admit I wasn't too happy about being moved as in the UK I just had one big room that dealt with everything bar C Section but luckily it wasn't needed :)

[sophiedb]

Bat girl

A midwife trained to uk/nz/au standards and european standards are seen as the experts in "normality". it is said that a midwife is trained to the same level of expertise as a registrar (which is one down from a consultant). I am a midwife and I have been trained and had experience in dealing with all types of obstetric emergencies. An experienced midwife is a awe inspiring thing to see, believe me!

From a fairly recent UK mother's perspective, I agree :) DD was born in a hospital with both a midwife-led and a doctor-led unit. I had community midwife care throughout pregnancy, never saw a doctor and had no complications, so we aimed for a waterbirth in the midwives' unit.. but her heart rate went up and we ended up with the doctors anyway. That said, I swear that it was still the two midwives in charge and they backed me up when I said I didn't want a C-section unless it was actually necessary - the doctor conceded that forceps would do fine, and so it did. Oh, and blood tests showed that DD's rapid heart rate wasn't caused by undue distress - if it had been I'm pretty sure it would have been a C-section, end of story.

If I get pregnant again I will probably end up with some doctor-delivered care as I am now lacking my thyroid, however I firmly believe that midwives are the best people for putting a pregnant/labouring woman (and her partner) at ease. I wouldn't have it any other way unless it was absolutely necessary.

[batgirl1001]

What an odd little practice; coming from my perspective of course. If I tell everyone that someone other than a doctor, a midwife is assisting me in the delivery, they are going to roll their eyes and think the backwoods. And I come from a family with 2 veteran nurses who are my aunts.

Perhaps its paranoia on my part. But people here (Singapore) really want doctors even if it is just to pat their hands and tell them they are alright and charge them $200 for it. I must admit my hubby was stunned and he immediately insisted private hospitals. I think he was more surprised than me. Haha

I suppose midwives are masters of their field but having never experienced this for myself or know anyone who had experienced it, I won't know whether to trust it. Need to see it for myself if it works which means I need to find out more information. I will be over 35 when I want No.2 which means more complications for me.

[Georgebulldog]

What an odd little practice; coming from my perspective of course. If I tell everyone that someone other than a doctor, a midwife is assisting me in the delivery, they are going to roll their eyes and think the backwoods. And I come from a family with 2 veteran nurses who are my aunts.

Perhaps its paranoia on my part. But people here (Singapore) really want doctors even if it is just to pat their hands and tell them they are alright and charge them $200 for it. I must admit my hubby was stunned and he immediately insisted private hospitals. I think he was more surprised than me. Haha

I suppose midwives are masters of their field but having never experienced this for myself or know anyone who had experienced it, I won't know whether to trust it. Need to see it for myself if it works which means I need to find out more information. I will be over 35 when I want No.2 which means more complications for me.

I can understand how you feel as I had no 1 in the UK & no 2 here & I always compare how things were done or what I could buy & it is so different here

BTW Being over 35 doesn't have to mean more complications, my 1st was ventous (sp?) but 2nd was 2 1/2 hours with nothing but G&A so another thing not to compare, unless you've been told otherwise that is :)

[James 1077]

What an odd little practice; coming from my perspective of course. If I tell everyone that someone other than a doctor, a midwife is assisting me in the delivery, they are going to roll their eyes and think the backwoods. And I come from a family with 2 veteran nurses who are my aunts.

Perhaps its paranoia on my part. But people here (Singapore) really want doctors even if it is just to pat their hands and tell them they are alright and charge them $200 for it. I must admit my hubby was stunned and he immediately insisted private hospitals. I think he was more surprised than me. Haha

I suppose midwives are masters of their field but having never experienced this for myself or know anyone who had experienced it, I won't know whether to trust it. Need to see it for myself if it works which means I need to find out more information. I will be over 35 when I want No.2 which means more complications for me.

The difference is, as mentioned above, one of perspective. Most European countries (and Oz / NZ) see pregnancy and child-birth as a natural process rather than a medical condition. Therefore lots of people give birth outside of hospitals (either at home or at birthing centres) or, if they are in a hospital, without doctors "treating" them (as if you haven't got a medical condition then why is there the need for a doctor?).

As soon as there are any complications or the pregnancy becomes high-risk then you do need a doctor - with the level of doctor being appropriate for the risk (so junior doctors helping out mid-wives when the risk is higher to Gynacologists perform c-sections when it is very high).

With my wife's pregnancy the risks were much higher than normal as she was expecting twins and needed a semi-emergency c-section due to her state at 8 months therefore giving rise to the babies being born 4 weeks premature (semi-emergency as it happened 6 hours after a routine doctor's appointment but we had time to go home, pick up the bags, phone friends to cancel my 30th birthday party and head into the hospital) . We therefore had 1 consultant, 1 anaesthetist, 1 paediatrician, 2 midwives, 2 nurses and me around the operating theatre when the kids were born.

However a friend of ours had a very easy, low risk pregnancy and gave birth at home with only a midwife and her husband in attendance.

So what I'm trying to get at is that the risks are weighed during your pregnancy and your care is in accordance to those risks. Doctors aren't always necessary unless they need to treat something. Midwives are normally far better than doctors anyway as they deal with more pregnancies, form a relationship with the mother throughout the pregnancy and generally have a better bedside manner as they can devote more time to the mother and baby.

[BkyMonster]

In addition I think you'll find with the midwives that they want you to be comfortable with the birth and will tell you your range of options for a birth plan, ie epi and hospital birth to all natural home birth while being prepared to change plans for any circumstances that may arise.

[kerrijeansmith]

Midwives in NZ definitely have hospital priviledges and use them alot. They are considered experts even by doctors.

Kerri

[JandM]

What an odd little practiceWhen you're going to research the issue, if you want information from highly trained professionals, it might be better to translate this comment more tactfully as, 'This is different from what I experienced in my home country.' Europe and Australasia use this method successfully: a system 724 million people employ isn't actually very little. And different doesn't have to be odd.

[Swedenz]

Heres a link with more info on midwifery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwifery

I had a wonderful experience with the midwives here in Sweden and am very happy that no doctor was involved in any part of my pregnancy or birth!

I believe that the midwives made the experience much more relaxed and natural, without any undue stress or worry!

As JandM says it really isnt an odd practice at all!

There has been a lot of discussion about this issue on another forum I belong to in Sweden, as there are quite a few American mums living here...let me know if you want the name of the forum:nice1 (its in english by the way!)

[batgirl1001]

Thanks everyone for all your replies and information. It was interesting to know about this. I was surprised about this practice and how norm it is in NZ. I actually thought that midwives was just one option and you can opt for doctor-assisted care and delivery if you want to.

I still haven't exactly come to terms with it and perhaps I am still leaning against it. In the end I will still research on this topic (and what better way to research than to be in NZ actually seeing it for myself) and come up with my own conclusions what I think is the best.

I'm not pregnant so I do have a lot of time to think about it. I worked out there are advantages to having a child in NZ as well as having my child in Singapore. It's great to know I can have a choice.

[M-Squared]

Papu - When I signed up with Southern Cross, I was told that *ALL* pregnancy costs are covered by the government as you're breeding little Kiwis, and the government doesn't want to charge you for that. :nice1

Batgirl - I'm really pleased you've learnt from this. I was born at home (ok... in 1968) but if you look at the hospital intervention rates (C-sections, forceps deliveries, inductions etc) you'll see just how much they have risen. It's scary! I know first-hand. I see myself as just a statistic in the US. I had birth taken from me. I didn't have a chance to actually give birth. :(