[Cranky Kitten]

Not sure if this is the best spot to ask this question, but here goes - I'm planning to birth in a private hospital doing shared care with my GP. The trouble with this of course, is not knowing the midwives who will be on duty when I'm in labour. I'll have DH with me of course, but am thinking about additional support. If I engage a private midwife, she'll be there as a support person only rather than being able to act as a midwife as she won't be registered for the hospital. I am planning to discharge quite early so will be engaging a postnatal midwife to visit for a few days post-birth.

I'm mainly wanting someone to help both me and DH, explain things and advocate for what I want etc. I'm wanting to birth as naturally as possible, but am open to changes if medically necessary.

So which would you choose?

[rosiebird]

A private midwife.

[bright*future]

I agree with above, private midwife

[MoonPie]

Midwife and student?

[shelbysmum]

Private midwife, I recently had one for the birth of DS2 and it absolutely made it so much better having someone that knew me and could advocate for me and she also held my hand for a lot of my labour literally which was exactly what I needed !

[Phascogale]

If you can afford it then the private midwife.

A student won't cost you anything but she may not be able to get there or stay for the whole of your labour (depends on her circumstances at the time ie kids, school, placement at the time of your labour). You can have the student as an extra support as well as the midwife.

This post has been edited by Phascogale: 19/01/2013, 11:40 AM

[Melissam12]

A private midwife.

[Mianta]

Just for another view, can you possibly get into a publicly funded midwifery group practice in your area and do GP shared care with them?

[duck-o-lah]

Just to add a thought, a midwife I was talking to said student midwives are great (assuming you get a keen one) because they have so much to learn and constantly ask questions about why this or that is being done and offering suggestions about alternative ways of doing things. I think a SM would be good if you wanted to know exactly what was happening and why, for that reason. However if I wanted someone to advocate for me and perhaps require the confidence to challenge the decisions made by your healthcarers then I would probably go for a doula or PM.

[rosiebird]

I definitely wouldn't want a student midwife or doula questioning my obstetrician but I trusted my very experienced private midwife to do just that. I wanted someone who thought like me about my birth but had a clear head to make decisions. She was great