I met Amanda and her family this past week! Her sons are about the same age as mine and just as busy. Thank you for sharing your story with us and welcoming me into your home!

Who are you? What do you do for a living? How many kids do you have? Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Hi, I’m Amanda and I’m 34. I have two boys, a 3 and a half year old and a 19 month old.  I’m a teacher and love to crochet. My husband is Adam and he owns his own plumbing business.

How did you come to know that midwifery care was an option to you and your family?

I had an OB for my first pregnancy and while I liked my doctor, our experience at the hospital left much to be desired. One of my friends and colleagues is married to a midwife so I had heard some really amazing and supportive birth stories and had my mind set on a water birth at the Birth Centre.

How far into your pregnancy did you apply for care?

As soon as I found out around 5 weeks, I called the intake line.

When did you find out you were accepted into care?

About a week or two later I found out that I had been accepted! I was so excited!

Are you willing to share your birth story/stories with us? We would love to hear them!

For my first son, I pretty much laboured in triage for 5 hours as there were not enough beds. No nurses helped me and my poor husband had to take over nurse duties like getting me cold cloths as it was boiling hot in triage and I was nauseous. I finally got a room around 2:30am and my boy Noah was born about an hour later at 7.6 lbs. My delivery nurse was really good, but aside from that we were not happy with our experience in triage at all. We felt ignored.

For my second son, I felt so supported in my labour and delivery. I was able to call my midwife on the phone and go over how I was feeling before making a trip down. Contractions really ramped up around 11:30pm and by 1:30am I had woken my husband up and had called my mom to come to the house to watch my oldest in case we had to leave. I also called my midwife to see what she thought I should do. We decided that I should continue to labour at home for a bit but to call when the pain got worse. I called around 3:30am and said that I wanted to come in and get checked. I was worried about baby coming quickly as my first labour was pretty quick. We arrived at the Birth Centre around 4am and I was still only 3cm or so. So I went into the large shower for a while to try and ease the pain. I was going to try a water birth so as I got out of the shower and as they were filling the tub, I told my husband to go get our bags from the car. Well, as he left, I felt like I needed to start pushing! I told my midwife that baby was coming but they still needed to finish filling the tub! I needed help walking over into the water as I felt like baby was going to fall out. By this point my husband had returned to the room. I got in the tub, pushed for maybe 10 minutes or less, and my baby boy Jacen was born at 5:32am, in the caul! We did skin to skin (my husband was able to as well!), established breast-feeding and then we were all home by about 9:30am. It was an awesome birth!

What, in your opinion, was the most important part about the care you received?

I loved everything about having a midwife. Your appointments aren’t rushed at all and you really have a chance to talk about anything you may be feeling. Your midwives are on call for you. I felt like I had a personal labour coach who helped keep me calm, whereas I didn’t see the OB until my first son was being born (and it wasn’t even an OB I had met before). Midwives give super personalized care.

Would/do you recommend midwifery care to family and friends who are expecting? If so, why? If not, why not?

YES! I just wish everyone could receive the care of a midwife.

Finally, who were your midwives? Do you have a message you would like to send them?

My midwives were Kelly and Toni. Kelly attended the birth. Both were really great and I loved my entire experience with them. During the birth, Kelly was such a great labour coach. It was such a different experience from having my first son in the hospital.

**If you are looking for ways to help, you can sign the petition supporting our Midwives and Midwifery care in Manitoba. It can be found HERE.

***If you would like to be a part of this series, please email me at [email protected] . I would love to share your story!

Cheers!