The Midwife Center: Our Experience Thus Far

For those of you who don't know yet, Rivkah and I are using The Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health in the Strip District near Downtown Pittsburgh. Now, when we first started talking about where we would be going for care, my immediate reaction was "Magee Women's Hospital of course. That's where everyone in Pittsburgh goes when they are pregnant." However Rivkah, and my mother-in-law were adamant that we check out the birth center. I was VERY apprehensive of it and kept insisting that we go to the hospital, as I have never experienced alternative care like a birth center. Well, we went for an orientation session and I think I was whining the whole way there but I tried to keep an open mind. One hour later, maybe an hour and a half, I was sold!

The ideas and values that they base their practices around were so amazing. Practice number 1) they never take the baby away from the parents unless there is an emergency. Practice number 2) they hand you your chart upon signing in for each appointment. You never need to ask for it and if you have questions they answer them very happily. Practice number 3) they have you meet each of the midwives during the course of the pregnancy so that no matter who happens to be on call when the baby comes, you have met her and established a relationship with her.

So far we have had 4 or 5 appointments and each one has been really personal. The midwives take the time to really answer every question we have. This week was our most recent appointment and Rivkah had a list of questions that she wanted to ask. The midwife, seeing the list in Rivkah's hand said "are those questions that you need to ask" Rivkah:"yes" Midwife:"Ok, let's start with those today." It's little things like that that make me so sure we are doing the right thing by choosing the Center for our care.

Just some numbers to note:
-Rivkah is now 19 weeks pregnant.
-The baby is about 5.5 inches long from crown to rump.
-Weight is about 7 ounces.
-Ike's heartbeat is at about 144 beats per minute.

Our Growing Family and My Growing Belly

So, it's baby time in our little family, and we couldn't be more thrilled! And, apprehensive, and cautious, and worried. All the usual good stuff of first time parents. My mother wants to know what I'm so worried about, why I'm so paranoid. I'm an anxiety driven hypochondriac, of course I'm going to be worried.

But, if I wasn't worried, I'd be worried that I wasn't worried, so this works out well for me. Worry drives me to be healthy. I'm careful with sweets because I don't want to have gestational diabetes on my hands. I try to walk a lot and do other pregnancy exercises because it's good for me. Worry is inspiration to me. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Definitely not all the research I did about becoming pregnant and being healthy.

On the bright side for our little Ikey (gender unknown), I'm the 3rd of 8 kids and am used to babysitting wild indians, so I should be a fairly relaxed mother. Plus, I'm practicing on Goose.

All worry aside, we couldn't be more excited to be first time parents. This excitement is made greater by the wonderful support and happiness of our friends and family. The next 4.5 months are going to feel so long and going to pass by so quickly. It's the next page in the adventure book of our life. We're looking forward to starting the next chapter.