Midwifery Services
Our certified nurse midwives (CNM) spend time developing a relationship with you. We discuss diet, lifestyle choices, supplements, familial risk factors and natural management options to provide the best care for your overall well-being in addition to your pregnancy .
Services
Midwives do much more than care for women throughout their pregnancies. They care for them throughout their lives.
At UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center, our midwives offer:
- Annual exams and healthy lifestyle counseling
- Breast and cervical cancer screening
- Breastfeeding support
- Contraception counseling and management, including oral, transdermal, subdermal and intrauterine methods
- Evaluation and management of chronic vaginitis
- Evaluation and management of menopausal changes
- Hormone replacement therapy, including holistic alternatives
- Management of abnormal pap smears, including performing colposcopy
- Postpartum care
- Preconception counseling
- Routine prenatal care of the well woman
- STD screening and treatment
Labor and Delivery
Our midwives will be with you during your labor and delivery at the Pascal Women's Center.
Choosing Midwifery as Part of Your Birthing Plan
Our team of women's health experts includes certified nurse midwives with training and experience in supporting women in maintaining healthy pregnancies and having optimal births and recoveries. We will help you develop an ideal birthing plan to make the birthing experience beautiful and memorable.
Our midwives strive to create a partnership with each patient, using individualized methods of care and healing. We incorporate therapeutic use of physiological and emotional support paired with skillful communication.
We honor the normalcy of women's life cycle events and believe in watchful waiting and non-intervention in normal processes. We use appropriate interventions and technology for current or potential health problems, and we collaborate with physicians and other members of the health care team as needed. And we offer up-to-date medical options for pain control for those who prefer a medicated birth.
Our midwives are specially trained to provide a wide range of holistic services to our patients to provide a whole body experience. During labor, our midwives may use the following holistic techniques with our patients:
- Acupressure
- Cranial sacral therapy
- Essential oils
- Hydrotherapy
- Massage
- Myofascial release
- Rebozo
- Spinning babies
- Sterile water papule injections for back pain/back labor
Common Questions About Midwives
Do midwives only deliver babies?
In addition to prenatal care, certified nurse-midwives provide health care to women during all stages of life. This includes annual well woman exams, screenings, prescribing medications, gynecologic care, healthy lifestyle counseling and more. Aside from performing surgery, a certified nurse midwife is trained to provide all other services provided by an OB/GYN doctor.
Do midwives have formal training?
In order to be a certified nurse midwife, one must have a master's or doctorate degree from an accredited nurse midwife program and then pass the American Midwifery Certification Board exam.
If I have a midwife, does that mean I won't be allowed to have pain medication during labor?
No. Your midwife can offer all the same pain control options as any other provider would.
Will my insurance cover a midwife to take care of me during my delivery?
Yes, however as with any procedure or hospitalization, it is always best to check with your insurer's specific coverage. Most insurances recognize midwives as independent obstetrical practitioners.
What happens if I need a Cesarean section during my labor?
A Cesarean section must be performed by an OB/GYN physician. However, your midwife will go with you to the operating room to assist the surgeon and to make sure you still achieve the positive birth experience you desire.
I am not someone who believes in a lot of holistic or alternative medicine. Does that mean a midwife isn't for me?
Not necessarily. Just because your midwife has special training in these arenas doesn't mean she will try to force them upon you. Your midwife's job is to provide a health care experience tailored to your specific needs and desires.
