Eleven Weeks

[Written 11/2/11]

Today I met my midwife. She was nice and seemed to have a lot of experience. She also seemed more like a "medwife" -- more apt to medically manage than a traditional midwife would. Perhaps she's more flexible about this than I realize, we didn't talk about it too much during this appointment. She's was easy to talk to and clearly has enough patience to deal with crazy hormonal pregnant women. :)

I think almost any midwife I'll have here in NC is probably just more limited by healthcare laws than midwifes in most other states. In a little fun comparison of NC and WA on this topic, Citizens for Midwifery's website had this to say about midwifery in WA:

"There are two types of state-recognized midwives in Washington - Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and Licensed Midwives (LM). The Licensed Midwives are direct-entry. There are many free-standing birth centers, staffed largely by the LMs. Home birth is legal, and is reimbursed by Medicaid, as well as many other insurers"

However, if you try to find information about NC from the same site, you'll have less luck. I did discover that NC is one of a handful of states where licensed midwives cannot legally practice and that certified nurse midwives are "required to practice in collaboration with a physician." I guess that I should just be grateful to have the option of a midwife, as long as this pregnancy remains uncomplicated.

Moving on from my tangent on midwives, my appointment was short and there wasn't much to it, most of it was spent talking. The nurse took my vitals: weight, blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. The midwife listened to my heart and lungs and then she used the doppler, so we could hear to the baby's heartbeat. It was in the 160's, which is great.

Our little baby is now the size of a lime!

The Bump is trying to be funny this week: "fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future." Ha.