Welcome beautiful! If you’re here you might be pregnant or interested in learning about pregnancy and birth. Maybe you’re curious or maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed about which provider to partner with and while this post might not convince one way or the other, maybe I can provide some insight into these two very different approaches to your care and reassure you in your choice.

So, you’re wondering what is the difference between a midwife and an ob/gyn??

Are excited to learn lifestyle adaptations for pregnancy & postpartum ? Do you want to work in partnership with a practitioner that will invest time in sharing wisdom about nutrition & exercise that is CUSTOM to you, your lifestyle, your culture?

If you’re anything like me, then the answer is YES. If so, you might be more in alignment partnering with a midwife.

Ob/GYN-Obstetrics & Gynocology a Surgical Specialty

Obstetricians are surgeons first, and while they have little to no experience with a natural physiologic birth, they do have training on the standard protocols for high risk pregnancies & complications.

OB residents, like any doctor, does their medical training, never diving to deep into one thing. They choose their specialty and then study all the possible complications within that specialty.

Rarely will you find a OB that has actually seen a completely natural, biologically unfolding birth.

OB’s spend on average 15 minutes with their patients during prenatal visits and they join families in birth only when the mother is ready to push.

They don’t go by women’s baseline vitals, they go by standard care baselines/average baselines for women. These baseline vitals are averaged from very old data, from a small and narrow population (white men to be exact) That is right…your ob is basing your vitals against that of white men from the early 1900s when you’re in labor.

Midwives

A midwife knows your baseline vitals, your normal, because she spends hours with you during your prenatals. She know what is going on in your life, what stresses you’re experiencing, and how you cope with stress that may affect your labor.

RELATED: Stress and Fear Affect Labor Progress

Midwives are MORE likely to educate families & properly prepare them to navigate birth, avoid emergent situations, feel confident & therefore have safer, shorter labors.

Midwives are more likely to PREVENT COMPLICATIONS

Because they take the time to cultivate a relationship with you, they are so familiar w/ your lifestyle, your current life events, YOUR ‘normal’, your baseline vitals and your baby’s ‘normal’ heart rate and how those shift with your life–>

Midwives are more likely to see red flags, warning signs, & complications coming from far away.

In contrast your OBGYN is more likely to cause complications. It’s not uncommon for the obstetric model to cause complications as a product of conservative, liability driven protocols, and lack of experience with natural physiologic birth and then step into a position to “save” you & baby from that very same (very avoidable) complication.

This happens, so much so, there’s a name for it & it’s called Iatrogenic Complications: provider caused complications.

Midwives are required to certify their emergent skills like Neonatal Rescusitation and CPR the same as OBs and L&D nurses. Sometimes Midwives and Hospital Staff train together.

Midwives have the same training as Ob/Gyns and Labor & Delivery Nurses when it comes to complications.

The difference is that while midwives have the same training and access to technology, equipment and medications, Midwives also have hands on training that Hospital staff does not.

Midwives can use hands on techniques to mange complications like stopping a hemorrhage, rescusitating a newborn, adjusting a fetal presentation that is obstructing birth to name a few.

These are skills that Midwives have relied on for hundreds of years in the home setting that Ob’s dont see in the out-of-home setting like hospitals and birth centers.

With that shared, I’d like to take a moment to honor some aaamazing and respectful OBGYNS, a few I admire and a few that I am very grateful for.

Victoria Flores MD, Ob/GYN, Partera

Dr. Stu Fishbeig Birthing Instincts

I have also worked with local OB’s that have supported families in their right to informed choice. While there are some experienced (in real, natural birth physiology) & respectedful OB’s it is still challenging for families to find ones that will work outside the medical system.

Even the more holistic, critical thinking OB’s are often working in a poorly operated, outdated system that leads to mismanagement & poor outcomes.

Providers work under protocols written by the hospital. These protocols are standard procedures put in place to provide “routine” care & outline medical boundaries (or limitations) for medical practices.

These guidelines are just that, guidelines for medical centers to lean on in the event of unusual circumstances. They protect them and they are in place because studies show they protect mama’s and babies.

These studies are outdated and funded by large organizations that either 1. know very little about natural biological birth 2. have financial incentives.

Unfortunately, these protocols are used against families in the name of high risk.

While it seems like I’m praising midwives, they are ALSO practicing under the SAME broken system as OBGYNS!

It is important to note that while Midwives tend to be the more holistic choice, Midwives in most states are also practicing under the same limiting protocols, “care guidelines”, that OBs are working under.

More & more Midwives are approaching birth as an extension of the medical model–> w/fear & limited by unethical laws.

Either you find a midwife willing to put you first & trust birth

OR

You educate yourself & your partner, trust yourself, your body & birth autonomously

No matter whether you work in partnership w/ an OB, Midwife or you are birthing autonomously

–> your prenatal care (prenatal attention) is the best investment you can make & the phase that will have the biggest impact on your birth & postpartum outcomes.

Ill end this by telling you what I tell my families, In the end what makes the difference has less to do with your provider AND everything to do with how informed and clear you are about birth and your birthing choices.

To put yourself in a better position to know ALL your choice, to make informed decisions and to prepare for a safe, natural birth no matter who you birth with or where you birth—>

Use this Conscious Childbirth Guide & Workbook to prepare and plan for an autonomous natural birth.