So tonight I called a midwife. She seems nice. I have lots of questions I’d like to ask her, but it’s kind of hard with the children going ballistic around me. We talked briefly about her experience.  She’s had 2 apprentices, both of which dropped out of the midwifery program at ATM. She requires her apprentices to be self starters, and to be able to work on their own. Her job, as she sees it is more of a guide and mentor. I like that.

She only handles about 14 births a year. She doesn’t advertise at all, as she feels it leads to finding more women with a romanticized notion of what home birth is. That’s fair, and I can see that completely. Many women I’ve met over the years have a romanticized notion of home birth as something glamorous, and easy.  While it may be beautiful, and powerful, it is most certainly not easy. It is called labor for a reason.

She mentioned what she calls “midwifery boot camp” out of  San Antonio. Dan and I talked briefly about it. I’ll likely do both paths. Spend some time as her apprentice following normal out of hospital births, and then hit up the birth boot camp in San Antonio to broaden my experience base, and meet my clinical requirements. Though the idea of moving to San Antonio for this experience is more than a bit daunting. I wonder if I can find a similar birth center to work out of in Houston?

While I don’t intend to start the apprenticeship immediately, I am hoping to strike up a conversational relationship with her so we aren’t perfect strangers when I am ready. I already know that she’s a very devout Christian, and finds that to be an important value in those she works with.  I’m hoping over time I can get to know her birth philosophy. Hopefully she is as hands off as I am in that regard. I asked her for her recommendation of a pediatrician for the kids. She gave me one she recommends to most of her moms, and told me that he is very laid back and doesn’t push vaccines. The fact that she brought up vaccines at all was somewhat surprising. I’d like to find out more about where she stands on that.

All in all I think I like her. I hope to chat with her more in the future, and sent her a friend request on Facebook.

The next big steps are finding the funding for beginning courses with ATM (or at least buying the books on their required/recommended reading list), and getting my professional Adult + Child CPR certification – apparently St. Joes has courses on them. Oh! I almost forgot, she also let me know that I may have trouble getting certified for neonatal resuscitation because the courses are usually only offered to nurses or doctors, but ATM offers courses on it quarterly, and they are usually announced via their mail list.

This next year is going to be busy. So much to do! I also need to figure out logistics of childcare with Dan. That may be harder than figuring out how to fund school…