Midwives, Doulas and a Time Crunch

Did you know that the joke in the midwife community is that you should book your midwife before your future baby is even conceived in your mind? Before having a baby is even a topic of dinner discussion between you and your partner, you'd better get on a wait list. Well, throw a time crunch of being out of the province in the final third of your first trimester and you've got yourself in a nice little pickle. I needed a midwife, and I needed one yesterday.

Did you also know that one of the major causes of prenatal stress is voicemail? Oh yes, call after call and never a human voice did I hear. Finally a received a call back, and was able to book an initial meet and greet appointment at the clinic I'd had in mind for a while. I'm still undecided on how much detail will go into this blog, so for now, I'll keep it nice and mysterious as to the who/what/where type information. My first midwife meeting went well. Probably what I expected, got some information that I knew before, and some that was new. Afterwards, I was told I had a week to decide whether to choose their clinic, as they'll need to open up spots to the many other potential clients if I chose to go another way. She was also very supportive when I awkwardly said I was trying to get appointments with other clinics to have a few options, saying that it's a good thing to shop around a bit, and find the best fit for you.

Well, that was at least the idea. My appointment at my second option clinic couldn't be booked until August 29. We are out of our condo, and effectively out of the city as of September 1. There's no way that left time for any follow up appointments, ultrasound result reading, anything. This was frustrating as I really wanted to at least give myself two options to choose between. But it was looking like the decision would be made for us, simply because of our time constraints. I'm trying to adapt a very "go-with-the-flow" attitude throughout this experience, since I know it won't do any of us good for me to be a giant stressball. I tend to like to have things under control (a refined way of saying I can be downright controlling at times), so the "whatever happens, happens" deal is totally not my usual style.

Then I got a call from the clinic saying that my ultrasound results were in, and they didn't seem to have the contact info for my OB or midwife to send them to. Well, fancy that. Now my results were held hostage until I could make a decision? No way man. That day, after a quick chat with my husband, it seemed clear that we needed to go ahead with the midwife I had met with, since it just didn't seem possible to wait that long for a second option. That decision was further validated when I got a call for my follow up appointment with the midwife (including ultrasound results) at the exact date and time as my appointment with the second midwife clinic. Meant to be?

So, doulas. I happen to work with a brilliant Toronto company, bebo mia. I wonder why I was attracted to getting involved here, as they are simply about babies, maternal support, babies, everything pregnancy and birth related, and babies. They are a totally full-service, you name it they have it, boutique for fertility, pregnancy and parenting. And their primary driving force is the wonderful team of doulas. Ever since I started working with them, it was always the hypothetical, "well, when I finally need your services...". And all of a sudden, tonight we have our first meeting with our team of doulas. Is this real life? More on this and the fact that my pregnancy happened while attending my first fertility yoga class later.....