Chapter 17 #2
“I’m taking your question seriously, but read the material I gave you. You have seven months to decide what to do. Inside that pack is information for a doula or a midwife, beside my services.”
“What’s the difference?” Erin asked.
“In a nutshell, a midwife is medically trained to do what I do, however, they cannot perform a C-Section if it is needed. They can come to you for your monthly check up, talk to you about hospital or home births, and even write the prescriptions for your prenatal vitamins. A doula, is just a support person. Not that their job isn’t equally important, but they don’t have any medical training.
It’s all emotional support.” She saw their confusion, and smiled as she reached out and laid her hand over Erin’s.
“Take your time and read everything. There are comparison explanations of each position, along with a list of five people in the area who practice each thing. The top three on the list have been known to move into the couple’s home the last two weeks of the pregnancy to make sure everything goes as planned.
It’s totally up to you, and I am not putting any pressure on you.
The choice is yours, but you need to read what I’ve provided.
I’m here if you have any questions.” She gave them her business card and then looked at them with a grin.
“What?” Reid asked, feeling as if his head was about to explode.
“Along with deciding how the birth will happen, home, hospital, with me, a mid-wife, or a doula, you’re going to have to look into a pediatrician for the little one. Most hospitals prefer you to have one before you give birth.”
“Christ,” Erin said with a shake of her head. She looked at Reid and saw his green tinge, and gripped his hand harder.
“I’ll leave you with that.” She laughed and headed to the door, but paused and looked back at them. “There is an office with three pediatricians in it up on the sixth floor. Stop in and ask if they’re accepting new patients. That’s all you have to do.”
“Thanks,” Reid said, and looked at Erin. “Damn,” he whispered after the doctor left them.
“Yeah. And here I thought all I had to do was come to the doctor once a month.” Erin shook her head as she gathered the folder, her purse, and sighed.
At the reception desk, she made her appointment for the next month, and Reid talked to the woman. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“If you had to use a mid-wife, which one would you choose, and why?”
“Do you have the list?” she asked, and took it from Erin as she held it out. She looked it over, and picked up her pen and circled a name, who happened to be at the top. “I would pick this one.”
“Why?” Both Erin and Reid asked as one.
“Because they are generational. Don’t quote me on this, but I believe this family started being mid-wives before Colorado was even a territory, back when it was owned by the American Indians.
I do know that one of these women, I’m not sure which generation, but someone from this family delivered my grandmother, my mother, me, and though I started to use them, there were complications from the beginning of my first pregnancy, and I needed to be seen in a hospital setting.
Unfortunately, that pregnancy didn’t result in a viable child.
I’m still going through tests to see if I can conceive again, but when I do, I’d like to go the way of the mid-wife if medically possible.
” She saw their expressions and shrugged.
“It’s not a bad thing to use a mid-wife, they go to school, they get training, and they get degrees. It was just that my body decided to shut down on itself when I was pregnant. This was a one in a trillion case, don’t take what I told you to heart. Each woman is different.”
“Thank you for being honest with us. Now, one more question. Doctor Stone recommended the pediatricians up on the sixth floor, out of them do you recommend any particular one?”
“I worked with Dr. Stone,” she giggled at their expressions.
“It’s our Doctor Stone’s husband. However, he’s a high risk peds doctor.
” At their looks of confusion, she shook her head.
“He specializes in children of autism.” She quickly lifted her hand.
“There’s no indication your child will have it, but that’s his specialty.
Go up and see if you can’t schedule an appointment for a consultation. You have plenty of time.”
“Okay, thank you. One more question,” Erin said as she picked up the folder.
“What’s that?”
“If I have a home birth with a mid-wife, will the peds doctor come to my home to examine the baby or will we both have to be brought into the hospital?”
“I have no clue to the answer to that.”
“Thank you for your honesty,” Reid said, and he put his arm around Erin as they turned to leave.
It turned out that they had to wait for over an hour at the pharmacy for her prescription, so they decided to go out to lunch at the local diner before going back to pick it up.
They also took a page from Kevin’s book and stopped by the grocery store on the way home, to make sure they were well stocked until they had to come back in five weeks for the next appointment.
On the way home, they were both lost in their own thoughts as they thought back onto the appointment and what they had learned from both the doctor, and the receptionist.