General Info
All the midwives rotate their office time between the Chico and Paradise clinics and all share on-call time equally at Feather River Hospital Birth Day Place, in Paradise, where all births are attended. We do not provide home birth services. Your pregnancy visits will be scheduled at the clinic of your choice and we will try to rotate your visits between all four midwives so you will have the opportunity to meet every midwife before your birth.
Prenatal & Postpartum Care
Prenatal visits begin in the first 3 months of pregnancy so you should call and schedule your appointment as soon as you miss a period. We can do a urine pregnancy test in the office if you need one. The first visit will take at least an hour and includes your history, a physical exam including a pelvic and the time to answer your questions. Your follow up visits are every 4 weeks until 28 weeks (7 months), then every 2 weeks until 36 weeks (9 months) then every week until birth. Regular visits include assessing your weight, blood pressure and baby’s heartbeat and growth. Health maintenance education and having fun are included!
We encourage you to write down your questions as they occur to you; this is a good way to start a pregnancy diary. We believe the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask! We encourage your partner to participate in all your visits if you desire.
Your due date is relative – babies don’t have a calendar in there and they don’t always listen to what their Midwife (or parents) say! The average pregnancy is 280 days from the first day of your last menstrual period (with a 28 day cycle) or 266 days from conception if you do not have a regular 28 day cycle. So the due date is an educated guess and you are considered full term (ready) when you are between 2 weeks before the due date until 2 weeks after the due date. (Mexico has a better system – they give due months – less stressful waiting!
Birth
We believe it’s your birth, it’s your body and it’s your baby and you should do it your way. Whether you want to go all natural or high-tech with an epidural, we will support your decisions if they are safe. We feel our primary job is to give you complete, unbiased information on all matters pertaining to your health and provide you with the medical and midwifery expertise to keep you as healthy as possible. You are a partner in your health care decisions. A very important point to remember is that everyone has a ‘fantasy’ birth, and a ‘fantasy’ baby and we will talk about this when we form a birth plan. However, emergencies can and do happen and sometimes reality is a long way from what you had imagined. It is our deepest belief that it doesn’t matter how or where a birth happens, what is of the utmost importance is the health and safety of you and your baby.
Feather River Hospital (FRH) in Paradise is where all of the nurse-midwives attend women in labor. The hospital is a level II center for low and intermediate risk women and infants. The maternity unit is family centered and provides couplet care to mothers and babies. This means for a healthy woman she and her infant are kept together at all times and a nurse is assigned to care for them as a couplet. All labor rooms are birth rooms so on admission you will labor, deliver and recover in the same room. You may be transferred out to a postpartum bed where you will stay with your newborn until discharge if the unit is full. To find out more about Feather River Hospital please visit their website at www.frhosp.org and click on the links to:
A midwife will be with you when labor gets intense to provide professional support, expertise and care during labor, will deliver your baby and will usually stay to help you with giving the first bath and assisting with breastfeeding. If complications arise she will call in her back up MD to assist with the birth as needed. A Nurse-midwife may not assist a birth by artificial or forcible means, so in the event of a cesarean section or vacuum assisted birth, the MD will assume care and your midwife will continue to provide supportive care and may be the surgical assistant if you have a cesarean.
We will try to educate you on the pros and cons of all birth options including various pain relief measures, and will work with you to make informed healthcare decisions that are right for you and your baby at the time.
Menopause
Nurse-midwives provide health care to women through out the lifespan including well woman care to women at midlife and beyond. We follow established protocols for prescription hormone therapy if it is indicated, but also can provide information on alternative treatments for the common discomforts at this time of life. Lisa Catterall is a certified menopause clinician, having received certification in 2003 from the North American Menopause Society. You may access their very informative website at www.menopause.org.
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