Planning a home birth and need to find a midwife? Northwest Community Midwives are a wonderful group of supportive home birth midwives. Let me tell you a bit about them!
About Northwest Community Midwives
Northwest Community Midwives aims to help women experience birth’s transforming power with respect and dignity while providing support and safety and encouraging confidence. They strive to avoid interventions and let the natural act take its course while still protecting the mother and baby. All midwives use experience and intuition to inform parents if anything should fall beyond the ordinary.
Northwest Community Midwives is based on the midwives model of care. This encourages the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes and safe, as interference is the only thing risky. This model of care is meant to reduce the incidence of birth injuries, trauma, and cesarean sections. The Northwest Community Midwives comprises certified professional midwives who are knowledgeable, skilled and professional independent midwives. All of these have met the standards for certification set by the North American Registry of Midwives and are qualified to provide the model of care. The midwives are also licensed, direct-entry midwives. They have successfully completed the 1997 Core Competencies adopted by the Midwives Alliance of North America and passed the North America Registry of Midwives exam for CPMs.
Services
Northwest Community Midwives offer a variety of typical services homebirth midwives will do. Their prenatal care appointments last one hour per appointment. That time is spent clinically checking vital signs and important pregnancy milestones such as growth, position, and heartbeat. During prenatal appointments, your midwife will also talk to you about your pregnancy experience, including sleep, nutrition, stressors, exercise, and plans for the birth. All appointments are made in your home, with the ability of your midwife to do in-home lab services.
During your labor and birth, both midwives will be in attendance, offering the support you need when you want it. They believe two sets of skilled hands with different backgrounds and perspectives can provide better services. After your labor and delivery, they will encourage you to relax. At the same time, they tidy up and bring you nourishment, and answer any questions you may have while still monitoring you and your baby. The midwives will perform a pediatric check on your newborn, help initiate breastfeeding, and help you prepare for your first night with your baby.
Postpartum check-ins happen 24 hours after the birth, 3 days postpartum, 1 week postpartum, 2 weeks postpartum, 4 weeks postpartum, and then 6-8 weeks postpartum in the comfort of your own home! Northwest Community Midwives limit their practice to 3 births per month to better serve their clients. This ensures they are always available for questions and support during pregnancy, between appointments, in early labor, at birth, and during the postpartum period.
Specialty
Northwest Community Midwives has experience with the optimal fetal positioning technique. A relatively easy procedure to align the baby to possibly make birth shorter and labor more comfortable. The midwives also offer two types of tubs for water births. A heat-maintaining tub ideal for first births, the AquaDoula, and the inflatable La Bassine Tub. Water births are excellent options that provide a lot of comfort for mom during labor. The midwives are also practicing herbalists and give and teach woman-centered herbal care!
Northwest Community Midwives
Homebirth is a wonderful thing, and it’s even better when you have an awesome midwife to care for you and help you throughout your pregnancy journey and homebirth planning. Which Northwest Community Midwives is absolutely perfect for!
For more Portland motherhood content, check out the blog links below! But before you go, I would love to chat about your dream maternity and newborn photos!
