The Special Roles of Midwives and Doulas

May 30

Pregnancy is a beautiful time in your life, but it comes with physical changes and challenging decisions. Because childbirth can be unpredictable, you want sensitive, supportive, and knowledgeable care throughout pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum.

Your baby’s birth should be celebrated as a major life transition and not just a medical event, so you may consider using a midwife and doula as a nurturing alternative to traditional obstetrician care.

What Is A Licensed Midwife?

A Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) is educated to legally practice personalized prenatal, birth, and postpartum care, emphasizing your emotional well-being. Midwives are experts in pregnancy and birth and know the signs to look for should complications arise. A midwife can treat specific problems or refer expectant mothers to other specialists as needed. CPMs must pass a rigorous national exam, attend at least 100 births, and meet Department of Health requirements for licensure, including a special exam for WA.

What Is A Nurse-Midwife?

In Washington, a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) is a master’s-prepared professional health care provider and an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNP). CNMs are experts in both nursing and midwifery. In addition, Nurse-Midwives must pass a national certification examination and meet strict requirements set by state health agencies, and may not practice Midwifery without a license.

What To Expect From Midwife Care

You’ll receive a personal touch while your midwife spends time with you during prenatal care, labor and delivery, and your midwife’s role doesn’t end after your birth. Providing quality, personalized postpartum attention is one thing that sets Columbia Birth Center’s midwives apart from standard hospital care.

You will receive immediate postpartum care centered around the essential act of bonding. Your midwife will monitor you, but it is a priority to ensure your family has as much uninterrupted time to bond with your baby, so we do our best to remain as “hands off” as possible. Your midwife will help ensure you rest, eat, breastfeed, bond, and do anything else that makes you start to feel like your non-laboring self again. These moments are not rushed. Everything your midwife does should be centered around you and your new family having the time you deserve to absorb this experience.

Once you and the baby are home, you are not expected to figure things out on your own. Your midwife will check in with you within the first 10-12 hours and then again no more than two days postpartum to assess your physical and emotional health from the comfort of your home. Additionally, your midwife will perform tests on the baby that the state requires (metabolic screening, CCHD screening for heart defects, and hearing screening) and assess breastfeeding and the baby’s activity. There is usually another visit by one week of age, often when the milk comes in, and there may be a need for extra breastfeeding support.

Then, about 14 days postpartum, mom and baby are assessed again at the birth center. You can choose to have your midwife care for both you and your baby until two weeks of age. That way, you will not have to make trips to two clinics, you do not have to worry about different providers telling you different things, and you can be assured that all the normal questions and concerns you may have in the days following the birth will be answered by someone you have come to trust. At the 2-week visit, we will check to see that your baby weighs about what they did at birth, repeat the metabolic screen, and ensure that breastfeeding is going well. We recommend that parents schedule a visit with the pediatrician soon after the 2-week visit. You’ll be seen again six-weeks postpartum, officially completing your pregnancy care at Columbia Birth Center. From there, we are just a phone call away. You are free to call, text, or make an office visit at any time.

Midwives can help between pregnancies, and we can help even if you are not pregnant at all. We help with infertility, contraception, annual exams, gynecological infections, and menopause.

How Is A Doula Different From A Midwife?

While a midwife is a health care provider, a doula is a childbirth coach. They are trained to offer continuous, non-medical assistance and support to families during pregnancy, labor, and birth and at home during the first few days or weeks after birth. First-time birthing people often find their doula to be especially helpful in the early stages of labor when they are laboring at home. Columbia Birth Center welcomes birth doulas in the center for support during active labor. Doulas will provide outstanding support from the first signs of pregnancy to postpartum care.

Is Columbia Birth Center Right for You?

A birth center might be right for you if you seek an empowering and uniquely personal childbirth experience. At Columbia Birth Center, you’ll have a team working together to provide you with maximum care and comfort, giving you the tools and education you need to help your body do what comes naturally. Our midwives are up to date on the latest medical and midwifery research, and the same small group of midwives will care for you and your baby throughout pregnancy, labor, and postpartum. Doulas who have been certified are welcome to help clients at the center in early labor and to come with clients to the birth. Doulas are contracted separately from the center, and are not included in the birth center charges.