A Midwife's Philosophy
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, checking in with a midwife for prenatal appointments at regular intervals to see how you're doing, and receiving good support all play a big role in growing a healthy baby and preparing for an uncomplicated birth. This is why midwives like myself attach such great importance to the client-midwife relationship.
We like to call it partnership in care. This means that we expect our clients to take responsibility for both their day-to-day health and the decision to plan a home birth. At the same time we make ourselves available for ongoing guidance, accountability, careful monitoring and any referrals where necessary. In our observation the great majority of healthy mothers will have a normal pregnancy and a satisfying birth experience.
We also believe that a mother's rite of passage through the birth process makes her a stronger person for life. As caregivers, we respect her autonomy and her privacy whilst providing gentle guidance when deemed appropriate. Normal birth is best facilitated by limiting interruptions and interventions, while still carrying out appropriate surveillance to document that mother and baby are faring well. The birthing woman's right to choose where and with whom she wants to work through her birth process is fiercely protected. She may turn to her midwife for support and helpful suggestions during labor, but she is always encouraged to find her own way. Immediately following the birth, we take great care not to rush or disturb the early bonding needs between mother and child and family.
Home birth with a trained attendant remains a safe and viable option for SC families who choose it, and it gives me joy to do my part in perpetuating the tradition of midwifery.
About
Alexandra Wagner, LM, CPM, MBC
Born and raised in the Netherlands, I made my home in the USA after marriage in 1986. We raised four wonderful humans here, two of whom were born in a hospital, and
two in the comfort of our own home. They're all grown
now and doing well making their own way in this world.
In 2013 our first grandchild was safely born at home.
It wasn't until I was having my own babies in the late 1980's
early 90's that I started looking closer at childbirth practices. Back in the Netherlands a hospital delivery wasn't the norm for healthy, low risk mothers, so I had absolutely no clue what might go on there. When my first birth in the USA was to take place in a small-town hospital with an OB,
I was honestly curious, maybe even slightly excited about what they might have to offer a laboring woman. I had no intention of accepting pain medications. I was convinced I could do this, just as my mother had several times. As it turned out, my labor had some lessons in it, and after what seemed an eternity of slow and painful progress, I reluctantly agreed to let them speed things up a bit. Little did I know that I'd soon find myself a floundering mess, unable to cope with "my" contractions, and completely out of sync with my body. I panicked. Tethered to beeping machines, stuck in a bed with the rails up and fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, I felt trapped in every way. My throat sore from the frantic breathing which I was presumably doing all wrong, and so I succumbed to accepting a "little something" in my IV to take the edge off. It made me drunk. I was exhausted and incoherent, and the pain was still there..
This was so far from how I had envisioned giving birth! To this day I remember the utter disappointment both in myself and what I had bought into. How ill-prepared I was. I had sunk into a drug-induced stupor for some time, and it was agony, not relief. There was no epidural. The well-meaning staff's earlier promises to take good care of me suddenly rang so hollow. I almost pitied them - was this it? Did they feel powerless too? As the IV wore off and I was reasonably coherent, they announced I needed a cesarean! I knew then I needed to step up to the plate: I got active and pushed my baby out with some help, narrowly escaping that cesarean. Thankfully, all panned out well and the staff was caring, but that day I realized, for me, there had to be another way of doing birth. Two years later, after a short and surprisingly painless labor, our second son arrived safely in the comfort of our own home. It restored me, and deeply affirmed my belief in birth.
After two more wonderful births, I was so intrigued with the process that I trained to be a professional doula and became a labor support in a busy teaching hospital. It felt good to offer laboring women the very thing I had found lacking during my first birth. Yet after attending nearly two hundred hospital- and a handful of home-births, the pull to the home environment won out and I trained the next four years to become a Direct Entry Midwife, received my SC State license in 2004 and have enjoyed being in independent practice ever since. I am also a CPM and a NARM-registered clinical preceptor for direct-entry student midwives.
In my free time I enjoy going for nature walks, putter in my garden, eat good food, make and admire art, and spend quality time with my family and many other lovely people.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, I made my home in the USA after marriage in 1986. We raised four wonderful humans here, two of whom were born in a hospital, and
two in the comfort of our own home. They're all grown
now and doing well making their own way in this world.
In 2013 our first grandchild was safely born at home.
It wasn't until I was having my own babies in the late 1980's
early 90's that I started looking closer at childbirth practices. Back in the Netherlands a hospital delivery wasn't the norm for healthy, low risk mothers, so I had absolutely no clue what might go on there. When my first birth in the USA was to take place in a small-town hospital with an OB,
I was honestly curious, maybe even slightly excited about what they might have to offer a laboring woman. I had no intention of accepting pain medications. I was convinced I could do this, just as my mother had several times. As it turned out, my labor had some lessons in it, and after what seemed an eternity of slow and painful progress, I reluctantly agreed to let them speed things up a bit. Little did I know that I'd soon find myself a floundering mess, unable to cope with "my" contractions, and completely out of sync with my body. I panicked. Tethered to beeping machines, stuck in a bed with the rails up and fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, I felt trapped in every way. My throat sore from the frantic breathing which I was presumably doing all wrong, and so I succumbed to accepting a "little something" in my IV to take the edge off. It made me drunk. I was exhausted and incoherent, and the pain was still there..
This was so far from how I had envisioned giving birth! To this day I remember the utter disappointment both in myself and what I had bought into. How ill-prepared I was. I had sunk into a drug-induced stupor for some time, and it was agony, not relief. There was no epidural. The well-meaning staff's earlier promises to take good care of me suddenly rang so hollow. I almost pitied them - was this it? Did they feel powerless too? As the IV wore off and I was reasonably coherent, they announced I needed a cesarean! I knew then I needed to step up to the plate: I got active and pushed my baby out with some help, narrowly escaping that cesarean. Thankfully, all panned out well and the staff was caring, but that day I realized, for me, there had to be another way of doing birth. Two years later, after a short and surprisingly painless labor, our second son arrived safely in the comfort of our own home. It restored me, and deeply affirmed my belief in birth.
After two more wonderful births, I was so intrigued with the process that I trained to be a professional doula and became a labor support in a busy teaching hospital. It felt good to offer laboring women the very thing I had found lacking during my first birth. Yet after attending nearly two hundred hospital- and a handful of home-births, the pull to the home environment won out and I trained the next four years to become a Direct Entry Midwife, received my SC State license in 2004 and have enjoyed being in independent practice ever since. I am also a CPM and a NARM-registered clinical preceptor for direct-entry student midwives.
In my free time I enjoy going for nature walks, putter in my garden, eat good food, make and admire art, and spend quality time with my family and many other lovely people.