In their book The Essential Homebirth Guide, Certified Professional Midwives Jane E. Drichta and Jodilyn Owen write, “Midwives do not view prenatal care as a time to put information into your head, but as a process of exposing what you already know to be true.”

This statement captures the essence of prenatal care with a midwife. And the Miami midwives at Magnolia Birth House are no different.

Perhaps this is your first pregnancy and you’re completely new to prenatal care. Or maybe you’ve been pregnant previously but received your prenatal care with an obstetrician. In either case, you might have questions about prenatal visits with a midwife. 

Clients who are new to midwifery care may wonder, "What is a midwife?" and "How will prenatal appointments be different at the birth center?"

At Magnolia Birth House, we believe prenatal visits should be more than a quick stop to check your blood pressure. We view your appointments not only as an opportunity to provide important medical care, but also as a chance to answer your questions and to develop a relationship with you.

We also want to ensure you have access to the resources you need to have a healthy pregnancy and an empowering birth — all while offering the personalized, holistic approach that is the hallmark of midwifery care.

What Happens During Prenatal Visits at the Birth Center?

The prenatal schedule we follow at Magnolia is similar to what you would experience at an obstetric practice. Prenatal visits start around 10-12 weeks and continue about once a month until the third trimester. Beginning at 28 weeks, we see you every two weeks and starting at 36 weeks, you’ll have prenatal visits every week until your baby is born.

As a Magnolia client, if you start care during your first trimester, you’ll typically receive at least ten prenatal visits, but you may end up having as many as 16 visits, depending on when you go into labor. We encourage you to bring your partner or support person to at least one or two prenatal visits. This gives them a chance to meet the midwives and ask questions of their own.

If your first visit occurs during your first trimester, during that visit, we will calculate your due date, go over your medical history, ask about family and genetic history, and talk about your lifestyle. We will also discuss your options for genetic screening if you choose to have that testing and order lab work for the following.

• Your blood type and Rh factor

• Blood count (hemoglobin, hematocrit)

• Tests for hepatitis B, HIV, rubella, syphilis, and HPV

• Cultures for herpes I & II, gonorrhea and chlamydia

At every prenatal appointment, we will take your blood pressure and weight, and perform visual urinalysis on your urine. Toward the end of your first trimester, we will be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat with a handheld Doppler.

Around the 20-week mark, we will begin taking your fundal height measurement, which is the distance in centimeters from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus. In general, this number corresponds with how many weeks you are in pregnancy, give or take two centimeters

Also, during the second and third trimesters, we will check for swelling, especially in your hands and feet, and palpate your belly to monitor the baby’s position. Standard labs include glucose and anemia screenings at 28 weeks and Group B Strep screening around 36 weeks.

Ultrasounds are not mandatory, but we do strongly recommend all clients have the 20-week anatomy scan. We will order ultrasounds for you and help you set up those appointments.

How are Prenatal Visits With a Midwife Different Than With an OB?

Connection

Yes, the schedule we follow and many of the clinical tasks we perform are the same as what you would find in mainstream obstetric practices. However, one of the biggest differences between the traditional medical model of obstetric care and the midwifery model of care is connection.

What does that mean? We strive to provide personalized care with a holistic approach. While of course it’s important to monitor your physical well-being, we view you as a whole person with feelings, opinions, questions, and concerns — all of which affect you psychologically and socially.

When you enter into our care, we spend time getting to know you. One of the reasons birth centers are successful with out-of-hospital birth is because we build trusting relationships with clients. We trust you to give us accurate and full information, and you trust us in the guidance we provide for you.

A key to relationship building is longer prenatal appointments. In fact, during every prenatal visit at Magnolia, we allot 30-45 minutes for discussion. We want you to feel free to ask questions and discuss options without feeling rushed.

Mindset

At the foundation of the midwifery model of care is a difference in mindset. Prenatal care with midwives is unique because we believe that pregnancy and childbirth are normal life events and should be treated as healthy physiologic processes.

Midwives are experts in caring for low-risk, healthy expectant parents, and our goal is always a safe, empowering birth experience that ends with a healthy mom and healthy baby. Our training and experience have taught us how to assess risk and recognize when something is abnormal. If a client’s pregnancy becomes moderate- to high-risk at any point, we fully transfer her care to an obstetrician or provide the hybrid or collaborative care.

Consent

Another crucial difference when it comes to prenatal care with a midwife is the opportunity for informed consent or informed refusal. We believe prenatal care is a partnership that includes shared decision-making and shared responsibility, with the goal that our clients are full participants in their own care. The midwife’s job is to guide you in your pregnancy journey, offering information and resources. Your role as the client is to embrace the educational process and trust your body’s ability to achieve an out-of-hospital birth.

When making choices about your care, we want you to know all your options and have all the information you need.

If, after individualized education and discussion with a midwife, you decide to decline a certain test or procedure that is not mandatory, we will support you. You will still receive safe, high-quality midwifery care at Magnolia.

Are you ready to see the difference in prenatal care at Magnolia? Fill out our form to set up a free consultation!