Quote Originally Posted by FreshNewbie
I am confused now, what's a midwife ?
are you serious? a midwife is what the obstetrician almost completely replaced in the early 1900's.
for thousands of years women have hired women to assist them during childbirth. In the USA at least you can get extensive training, as a nurse practitioner/midwife. Some midwives go house to house just like they used to 100 years ago, but due to extensive doctor lobbying way back when, in a lot of states it is illegal! There is an extensive network anyway in most states.
The other way to have a midwife is to follow all the rules, and i had the good fortune to deliver my second son in a midwife "hostel" which was a little clinic
with real beds and stuff, without any medication or anesthesia at all. Midwives do best with normal deliveries, ob/gyn's prefer the problems, because after all, that's what they were trained to do. Midwives are on your level; doctors tend to talk down to you... I could go on an on..