Care and Services: Pregnancy

We provide all prenatal care that is necessary. Midwives are primary care givers, and are able to order laboratory work and tests, including ultrasound, for safe care during normal pregnancy. We will monitor blood pressure, urinalysis, weight, and baby's heart rate, position and growth. Midwifery care includes education and counselling, enabling a woman to make informed choices.

During your pregnancy, you will be seen every month until the 28th week, twice a month until the 36th week, and then weekly until the birth of your baby. Midwives are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to clients for urgent concerns and emergencies. As registered midwives, we follow the College of Midwives of Ontario's Indications for Mandatory Discussion, Consultation and Transfer of Care. This document outlines situations in which midwives are required to discuss your care with either a midwife or other practitioner. If your care should need to be transferred to an obstetrician, we remain in supportive care.

Clinic Appointments

It is very important to us that we do not keep our clients waiting for their appointment. We value your time and our time together to achieve the goals of continuity of care, information sharing and understanding.

Prenatal appointments are 30-45 minutes in length to allow your questions and concerns to be addressed. This allows time for discussion about nutrition, exercise, physical and emotional changes in pregnancy, medical procedures, preparation for labour and birth, complications, infant care and breastfeeding. Partners, other family members and support persons are always welcome.

We make every effort not to rearrange prescheduled appointments. However, at times, because the process of labour and birth is unpredictable (especially regarding when it happens) we may need to rearrange prescheduled clinic appointments. This will happen when a client goes into labour and needs us during clinic days. We try to notify you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding regarding this situation.

Care and Services: Labour and Birth

Prenatally, you will be given information about what to expect and when to notify your midwife that you are in labour. Often a midwife will come to your home to assess you during labour. If it is still early in your labour, advice and recommendations will be given to you as well as guidelines about when to call your midwife again. A midwife will be with you during active labour (4 cm dilated with regular contractions) until you deliver. We provide clinical care including monitoring yourself and the baby, progress in labour and also provide emotional support and comfort measures. A second midwife is called close to the time of delivery to assist at the birth.

n the event of illness, simultaneous births, off call or emergencies, we may call on Second Attendants to attend your birth and assist the midwife. The Second Attendant will assist in monitoring and assessment in labour and immediately postpartum. Our Second Attendants are registered nurses with additional training and skills to act in the role of Second Attendant or graduate midwives awaiting registration.

Care and Services: Postpartum

We will be present during your active labour and birth, and stay until 2 to 4 hours postpartum. Due to the continuity and additional follow-up we provide, some women choose to leave the hospital as early as three hours after the birth. This is a reasonable choice for women who have midwifery care, as the midwife will usually visit within 12-24 hours after the birth and is available 24 hours a day by pager. This ensures that women can safely return to the comfort of their own homes. Other women choose to stay in the hospital overnight or to a maximum of 60 hours.

At a minimum we do 5 postpartum visits, with more visits occurring if needed. These visits occur on day 1, day 3, day 5-7, and between days 10-14. The final visit is at approximately 6 weeks and is a follow-up visit for well woman/well baby care. Care after the birth includes monitoring of your baby's growth and development, your well being and adjustment to parenthood as well as breastfeeding support.

*Some unforseen circumstances may cause these timelines to change