How To Protect Your Kids Online?

Most women use obstetricians to provide prenatal care and to assist in the delivery of their babies. Obstetricians are trained in medicine and are very aware of the problems and diseases (and their treatments) that can occur in pregnancy and birth. For women who are in an extremely high-risk category, a doctor is a perfect option. Obstetricians are more likely than other care providers to require a great deal of prenatal testing and monitoring during labor and birth. A typical prenatal visit might last 5 to7 minutes. Exceptions to this might be the first visit, and a visit in late pregnancy when birth plans are discussed. These visits can last 10 to 20 minutes.

Increasingly, women are choosing midwifery care for their pregnancies � normal and "high-risk." Certified nurse-midwives can attend hospital births and, as trained nurses, are adept at working within the medical system. Direct-entry midwives are trained in midwifery but not in nursing. Depending on location, direct-entry midwifery may or may not be practiced legally, but it is practiced, nevertheless, nearly everywhere. Midwives have trained more fully in the study of healthy pregnancy and birth, and of course can also recognize and treat many complications. CNMs have backup physicians for cases of serious complications. Many midwives also attend births at free-standing birth centers and some will attend home births. A typical prenatal visit will last 20 to 30 minutes, and can be longer early and late in pregnancy, or when a mother has special concerns and questions that require lengthy discussion. Many women appreciate midwifery because the midwife is more likely to feel comfortable discussing the social and emotional aspects of pregnancy and birth.

Some mothers choose to give birth unassisted, or with only the assistance of a spouse or an informed close friend or relative. They may or may not receive prenatal care from a midwife or obstetrician, and if they do, they won't necessarily inform that provider of their intention to give birth unassisted. The reasoning behind unassisted childbirth involves a steadfast dedication to the idea of birth as a normal human process. According to those who practice unassisted childbirth, the presence of professionally trained assistants in pregnancy and birth is an automatic admission of powerlessness and an invitation for doubt, interventions, and ultimately an unnecessarily medicalized birth.