last week rowan and i met with the midwives' cooperative, and it was good. i knew lynne and jessica a little bit from the prologue to karen's birth (and from MUCH word-of-mouth) but i hadn't met donna, their #3. so we had our little interview and i felt really good about it. i'm torn now in deciding who my primary midwife will be--i think i have already decided, deep down, but i'm trying to justify that decision and make sure it's the right one. here's my assessment of each of them, based on what we talked about (my issues/their responses):
Lynne - she is calm. she is confident. she's not worried about anything, she's quick to laugh but appears to be very sensitive (i.e., she knows when to laugh and when not to). she's also a little reserved, maybe, and i found her hard to read at moments but feel that she was genuinely warm. she's been doing it so long that calling her a midwife seems redundant.
Jessica - she is young and oozes a love for birth. i think she is very aware of the emotional side of things but doesn't let it overcome her--she feels without being sucked in. she's careful with what she says until she can gauge the relationship, though she is unreservedly encouraging. she holds her knowledge close to the surface but she is gaining the calm confidence of lynne over time. she seems excited for me to be there.
Donna - she was maybe a little bit nervous, or it could have been just her personality--energetic. she reads 3-4 books a week. she does not seem to have the confidence of the others, but i'm not sure why not. she has a background in nursing. i felt like she was defending herself somehow, though she seemed really sweet and caring. she called herself a "guardian of normal," which i liked. she reminds me of my grandmother somehow.
so i was initially thinking that i really needed an older, quiet, "wise" woman at the birth who will trust things and leave me alone. my preconceptions have been challenged, however, and my gut tells me that jessica is the best for us. i watched her leave karen alone through labor, and in addition to that i just felt something click with us. i am torn for lynne and donna as a backup, because i really like lynne but i want to give donna a chance... but in the end i think i will ask for lynne if only because i know how well she and jessica work together. i guess we'll see.
i've come up with a question for them though, and i think i will email them with it in a few minutes; it's silly but i hope it will allow me to get a grip on who they think they are in terms of being midwives. i've asked them to invent an ideal title for themselves, like Rhiannon, Mistress of Accidental Pregnancies, for example. i hope they don't think i'm stupid for it, lol. i just want to know what their ideal vision of themselves is like...
anyway. this post is a few days old now and still not published, so it's about time. more later.
Lynne - she is calm. she is confident. she's not worried about anything, she's quick to laugh but appears to be very sensitive (i.e., she knows when to laugh and when not to). she's also a little reserved, maybe, and i found her hard to read at moments but feel that she was genuinely warm. she's been doing it so long that calling her a midwife seems redundant.
Jessica - she is young and oozes a love for birth. i think she is very aware of the emotional side of things but doesn't let it overcome her--she feels without being sucked in. she's careful with what she says until she can gauge the relationship, though she is unreservedly encouraging. she holds her knowledge close to the surface but she is gaining the calm confidence of lynne over time. she seems excited for me to be there.
Donna - she was maybe a little bit nervous, or it could have been just her personality--energetic. she reads 3-4 books a week. she does not seem to have the confidence of the others, but i'm not sure why not. she has a background in nursing. i felt like she was defending herself somehow, though she seemed really sweet and caring. she called herself a "guardian of normal," which i liked. she reminds me of my grandmother somehow.
so i was initially thinking that i really needed an older, quiet, "wise" woman at the birth who will trust things and leave me alone. my preconceptions have been challenged, however, and my gut tells me that jessica is the best for us. i watched her leave karen alone through labor, and in addition to that i just felt something click with us. i am torn for lynne and donna as a backup, because i really like lynne but i want to give donna a chance... but in the end i think i will ask for lynne if only because i know how well she and jessica work together. i guess we'll see.
i've come up with a question for them though, and i think i will email them with it in a few minutes; it's silly but i hope it will allow me to get a grip on who they think they are in terms of being midwives. i've asked them to invent an ideal title for themselves, like Rhiannon, Mistress of Accidental Pregnancies, for example. i hope they don't think i'm stupid for it, lol. i just want to know what their ideal vision of themselves is like...
anyway. this post is a few days old now and still not published, so it's about time. more later.
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