Long Island Midwifery Services

Doctors are trying to make birth a Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm business, despite evidence gained from studies in regions where there is less medical intervention showing that babies naturally tend to come at the extremely inconvenient time of 4am. This is where midwives come in. For a midwife, your labor and delivery are not an inconvenience or a pathological threat. For a midwife, your labor and delivery are a natural part of life that women have both suffered and enjoyed for millennia. I would never have known this had it not been for Barbara. Barbara is a Nurse Practitioner and Certified, Licensed Midwife.
Don’t let the Puritanical smear campaigns of the early days of America sway you from at least investigating the field of midwifery and considering if having a midwife directing your prenatal, perinatal, and postpartum care is right for you.
I was raised to believe that doctors are gods among men. My father wanted me to be a doctor and he trained me from an early age. I was blessed to possess the innate intelligence and desire to help people that being a good physician requires and I participated in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s talent search program when I was in 7th grade by taking the SAT exam and scoring better than the average high school test taker. Unfortunately, my emotional failings overcame me and I never succeeded past the age of 13. But the idea that a doctor is a god who holds the power of life and death never left me. I’ve been in awe of the doctors I have had the privilege to know and I watched my cousin work tirelessly for the entire 21 years of her education to become an MD. Please understand when I tell you that I am the last person you could picture recommending an alternative to a physician.
And yet I would stake my life on the fact that your overall health and well-being is best left in the more-than-capable hands of someone like Barbara.
Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse Midwives work with a physician. You will never be more than a phone call away from a physician if the need should arise. I cannot speak for every midwife, but I can tell you that Barbara has no qualms with sending a woman to the hospital or requesting a consult with her physician. There is no pride that comes before the health of the mother and child.
I write this in the hopes that a woman will read this and at least consider all of her options.
Midwives have a bad name in the United States and Canada because they were a serious threat to medical men and were a threat to all men because they placed the control of life-giving firmly in the hands of women at a time when men would have none of that. Midwives had advanced knowledge that allowed them to counsel women not only on child birth, but also family planning. As America was founded by Puritans and extremely patriarchal (I use this term with reservation as it has been kidnapped and misused by 3rd wave feminists who have run out of real battles to fight in this country) societies, you can imagine why slandering and outlawing midwives was a top priority.
You can be kicked out of the hospital six hours after giving birth in this country.
You can see a physician for less than two hours of a 48 hour labor and delivery in this country.
You can experience unbelievable trauma during a process that is so natural and beautiful when you are left at the mercy of someone who only sees your labor and delivery as a bother and as a battle to be won as efficiently and expediently as possible. Many women are left traumataized by what they experience during a purely medical hospital birth and they are never taught that it is okay to feel any way about their experience, let alone that it’s possible to be left with negative and scarring feelings.
A midwife will be with you throughout your pregnancy and will not release you from her direct care until a minimum of ten days following an uncomplicated birth (you do not need to be seen all 10 days, but you will be under her care).
Please research this option. Please think of yourself for once and think of your baby. Have the best of both