Welcome to Full Circle Midwifery!
Childbirth is a normal event for most women. The Licensed Midwives and Students at Full Circle believe midwifery care keeps birth safe and family-centered. It empowers women to keep healthy during pregnancy, to give birth naturally, and to parent in the best ways.
Some words paraphrased from another midwife: People often think of a midwife as being a safeguard “in case something goes wrong.”
But in actuality most of what we do is normalize what’s going right.
Yes, I can stop your hemorrhage or help your baby breathe or recognize the symptoms of pre-eclampsia or whatever thing might “go wrong.” I am proud of the fact that I have the skills to keep people safe in these instances.
But it’s hardly what I spend most of my time doing. In the average birth my skills recognizing and affirming what’s normal are just as important as my skill in recognizing what’s not.
In the average birth people are already safe, and probably would be even if I wasn’t there. Because birth is typically safe. So what people need from me, most of all, is to FEEL safe.
Birth is hard. It is vulnerable. It brings us to the very limits of ourselves. And, in our culture, it is something not a lot of people have experience with. Instead, it is something around which they’ve had a lot of fear and doubt instilled.
Even with childbirth education and research and watching endless birth videos, most people in labor (and particularly first time laborers) cannot believe that this is what labor actually is. It is grounding to have someone reminding them that, yes, this is what it is. Yes, it’s hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Yes, what is happening is normal. Yes, you are doing this exactly right.
Our faith in the process of birth, as a culture, has been undermined. So it’s helpful to have someone there who has faith in the process. It’s helpful to have someone there who has faith in YOU. And it’s helpful to have someone who you have faith in, so that you can trust they’ll have your back “if something goes wrong” but, just as importantly, so that you trust them when they tell you when everything is just right, too.
We offer a free hour of our time with you to share information about pregnancy and birth, and the services we offer. This will include a prenatal assessment of you and your baby if you desire, and referrals to other health care professionals. Call to set something up with us!
In all cultures, the midwife’s place is on the threshold of life, where intense human emotions, fear, hope, longing, triumph, and incredible physical power-enable a new human being to emerge. Her vocation is unique. ~~ Sheila Kitzinger
“Birth, like love, is an energy and a process, happening within a relationship. Both unfold with their own timing, with a uniqueness that can never be anticipated, with a power that can never be controlled, but with an exquisite mystery to be appreciated.” ~ Elizabeth Noble
Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers ~ strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength. ~ Barbara Katz Rothman
“Do not choose your birth options based on insurance coverage, but rather on the location where your needs will be met most effectively. We take out loans for cars, houses and other material objects – recognize your investment in supportive care providers for a birth of your choice is much more important, as it will affect your child’s well-being for the rest of his or her life.” ~ Molly Remer, MSW, ICCE, “Before You’re Admitted”, current issue of Pathways.
“Once the baby is born, your life will change forever. It will change in so many ways, and until you get there you simply can’t be told. The joys, the sorrows, the excitement, the fear, the frustrations—in fact, I think all the adjectives in the world couldn’t describe what is in store for you.” ~ Giuditta Tornetta, certified birth and post-partum doula, lactation educator, and certified clinical hypnotherapist
Whenever and with whomever they give birth, women are vulnerable unless information is shared with honesty and they can actively participate in decisions about everything that happens. Any setting in which providers of care have total control over the management of childbirth can become one in which power is used to abuse women even though it is done ‘for the sake of the baby’ or ‘for their own good’. ~~ Sheila Kitzinger
- VBAC: Often, the risk doctors are referencing is the less-than-1-percent chance that the post-cesarean uterus will rupture during labor, which can be catastrophic in some cases. The chance of a rupture is about .32 percent (or about 3 in 1,000) and the overall risk for “serious adverse perinatal outcome” (stillbirth, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, neonatal death) is about .27 percent or 106 out of 39,049, as concluded in a 2007 study.
