Home birth midwifery in the northeast region of Minnesota with Alisha Stoltzfus, community midwife.
What is Traditional Midwifery?
Approach to Care
As a midwife, I approach pregnancy and childbirth fundamentally different than contemporary obstetrics and/or the medical model with the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life events. Midwifery care is a nurturing, hands-on care before, during, and after birth. I follow the Midwives Model of Care™, Holistic Midwifery and Wise Woman Tradition, and am trained to provide comprehensive prenatal care and education, guide labor and birth, address complications, and care for normal, healthy newborns. The application of the model’s described below are proven to reduce the incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.
Midwifery Model of Care™ includes:
Monitoring the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle
Providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support
Minimizing technological interventions
Identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention
Holistic Midwifery (or traditional midwifery) includes observing and caring for the whole body, mind, and spirit through listening, education, and connection. It also includes attentive, skilled, and evidence-based support, establishing a caring atmosphere, limiting unnecessary interventions, educating clients thoroughly, and respecting, above all else, the rights of the pregnant person to make decisions about their own care.
My definition of the Wise Woman Tradition is the woman embracing her design as created wise to care for herself and her baby during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. She will be wise when to reach out for support and guidance if necessary. The woman is fully capable to care for herself, and make all decisions during the prenatal period (and beyond). The woman is the decision maker, and in charge of her care and wellness. She has options to be respected, heard, loved, and fully, and truthfully informed.
In the same sense, the midwife offers a relationship that is completely woman-centered. The midwife is a resource, guide, and sounding board for medical or non-medical choices; it may include numbers, labs, and testing, but isn’t focused solely on numbers or technology. The midwife is there to provide and hold space for the woman, and operates from a belief that woman-to-woman care produces the best birth outcomes because of the relationship and depth of care. Women know they are respected, loved, and considered unique in every possible way, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Providing this kind of care takes focus, dedication, and time learning the craft as well as the skills and science.
““Hold steadfast...that physiologically unhindered birth is the norm, not birth that needs to be highly monitored and assisted by midwives. Doing nothing requires creativity, patience, and complex observational skills. How would our lives be different if
we simply served from our own heart, rather than
by the set of rules imposed on us?””