Midwife or doctor?

Hello all!

I am new. Found out Monday when we saw two little heartbeats! So now we're at 7w, 4d. I had always wanted a midwife birth, but now my pregnancy is considered high risk because of the two babies. And while a c-section isn't an automatic, its much more common with multiple births. Today I was given the choice of working with a doctor or a midwife and I wasn't sure what to do.

Anyone give birth to twins using a midwife?

Any advice would be great!
Melissa

 

Hello. Welcome to Twinstuff and Congratulations! I had really wanted a homebirth with a midwife. I have decided to go with a doctor instead being that there are two of them. But many women have delivered twins with the help of a midwife. I don't really have any advice for you. I think it's a pretty personal decision. I decided on a hospital delivery but am opting for the more natural approach.

 

Guess I had both! :ibiggrin:

Was cared for by a team of OBs and a peri until 37 weeks. At 30 weeks, when all was looking great I started parallel care with a homebirth midwife. At 37 weeks I dropped my OB, and delivered at home at 39 weeks.

Just part of the drama, the midwife who delivered me was different from the one I went to for prenatals, just by an accident of timing. But I was lucky, the back-up midwife is one of the most experienced in the country with twin births since she has a lot of Amish clients.

Wonderful experience! I think midwife care is fantastic. But as a first time mom, I was happy to be with the doctors for prenatals too. It was a confidence builder for me. If anything had gone wrong in the pregnancy, I could have stayed with the docs. But I knew from careful care that the babies and I were very healthy.

FWIW, I didn't discuss my homebirth plans with my OBs. They did not support natural birth. Although they were willing to "let" me "try" for a vaginal birth with my "unproven pelvis," I knew from asking a L&D nurse that my chances were close to 0%. I didn't want to fight while in labor. That left me three choices: schedule a c/s (a choice which I respect for MoMs), show up at the hospital pushing, or stay home. I opted for the later, and loved it.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or want to read my birth story!

Best wishes with whatever you decide, but don't get to bowled over by twin shock. I remember those heady first days!

 

I am currently cared for by a Nurse Midwife and I woudl not have it any other way. I have met the OB a couple times and I like her. I mean, just in case somthing goes wrong, I know who is caring for me. MW care for me all the way.

 

I guess it would depend on:
1. where do you plan on delivering?
2. where does the midwife have privileges?
3. who will the midwife be consulting with?
4. if something should happen and the midwife is unable to deliver you (such as needing an emergency c-section) will you feel comfortable having a doctor you haven't seen your whole pregnancy do the procedure?


With my twins I had a very skilled OB. with this singleton I stuck with my OB because I love her but shes out of town this month (the month Im due)! If she wasnt available I would much rather a midwife than see one of her back-up doctors who covers for (because I dont care for them) So in her absence I'm seeing a midwife(that she recommended), who has hospital privileges and if a c-section would be warranted I know who would be doing it, the midwife will be assisting and at that point Im okay with the back-up.

Also keep in mind what is important to you. To me its important to be able to have:
1. as natural a delivery as possible
2. no iv
3. no drugs
4. no episiotimy
5. no rushing me
6. no continuous fetal monitoring

My ob is able to provide that (her back-ups arent) hence the reason Im now seeing the midwife while my doc is on vacation.

best of luck!

 

when i was pregnant with the girls we had the option of having shared care - we would have seen the midwives AND an OB. but at the time, OB care was covered by Alberta Health where as midwifery care wasn't and with two babies on the way paying an extra $3500 didn't seem like a good idea. looking back though, i really, really, really wish we had gone with the shared care. my OB & i did not get along at all - we had such different philosophies on birth. of course, hindsight's 20/20. the midwives in Calgary also have hospital privileges though - so while we would have had midwives, we would have still given birth at the hospital. GL with your decision!

 

I have to be with a peri this pregnancy b/c I'm too high risk. I like the idea of dipping your toes into both 'worlds' though. Either that, or you could consider hiring a doula to help with the birth and after-care process. I REALLY missed having more support when I was in labor. My dh was eager, but really had no idea what to do, and my nurses were all pretty busy. I never really considered having a doula until I labored for 24 hours before an emergency c-section. Just a thought!

 

There were so many things that could go wrong w/ our twin pg, that we opted for a OB. I didn't want to be dumped on an OB's lap a few weeks before the pg ended if something went wrong. I wanted to get to know and trust one during the pg.

We've homebirthed in the past and most of the pg's that I had in a hospital had a certified nurse mw, just not w/ twins.

HTH,

 

If you have both in the same office then I consider it ideal to be able to meet with both of them throughout the pregnancy. In a normal, non-complicated twin labor it'd be awesome to do it with a midwife. But if complications arise it'd be good to have an ob/gyn there. I'd also want to make sure how your ob/gyn feels about breech extraction of baby B. To me that was the biggest factor in attempting a vaginal birth of twins...simply because they might both be head down, but baby B might flip after baby A comes out. You want to know how that situation will be handled...and if the midwife is attending you want to know how she feels about it, and whether hospital policy will allow her to do a breech birth (some hospitals won't allow this for midwives.) . A doctor needs to have experience with breech birth in order to really give you the best odds for a twin delivery IMHO.

 

I too had planned to have a midwife assisted hospital birth before finding out that we were having twins. Same as some PPs said I opted for finding the best OB that I could (one with experience with twins, positive views on vaginal delivery and breech extractions, and someone that made me feel SUPER comfortable!) so that we wouldn't be switching care providers in the end or end up delivery with some strange OB that I'd never met before.

My OB is the best...he has only mentioned c-section once and that was in reference to the fact that I could choose one if I wanted to, but since both babies are head down all we talk about is vaginal delivery, he's very happy and confident about it, and also he has NO issue whatsoever with baby B being breech. He'll either turn her or pull her out breech!

 

I'm seeing a midwife practice that has OBs on staff. The plan is to deliver vaginally with the help of MW as long as the pregnancy continues to progress without complications, baby A is head down and baby B is head down or breech and the same size or smaller than baby A. If intervention is needed then the OB steps in. I'll meet the OB prior to show time during one of my pg appts.

I wouldn't automatically assume your pg is high risk simply bc it's twins. I felt the same way you did when we first found out about the twins. I'm 17ish weeks now and I've found a lot of information about healthy, uncomplicated twin pregnancies followed by intervention-free twin births.

Congrats and good luck!