More and more families today are choosing to work with midwives in the out-of-hospital setting. Women feel they are not receiving the personalized care they want and deserve in the hospital setting. Large practices of hospital based providers can feel daunting when the client knows the provider doesn’t know who they are, outside of their medical charts. Women want connection. They want to know that their primary care provider for pregnancy, birth and postpartum is someone that cares about them. As a midwife I care for one woman/mother/family at a time. I feel privileges to walk besides my clients as their primary care giver for the child bearing year. My clients have direct access to me to ask questions, bring up concerns and I can initiate emergency care any time day or night. It is the best kind of care as there is no hassle in getting a hold of me or waiting when things feel worrisome when the unknown is great. I work very hard to provide a wealth of information and to make myself available whenever the need arises. I spend as much time as I need with each of my clients answering questions and providing supportive and physical care. As a midwife, not only to a provide labs, ultrasounds and physical exams but I also have the privilege to offer dietary counseling, birth preparation and breast feeding education and support, prenatal counseling and bodywork. What I can offer is a wholistic approach to the childbearing year that is beyond what the medical model understanding or is even interested in. My interest laying in supporting the whole person while creating safety in the field for natural childbirth to unfold in the most straight forward manner as possible. This does not mean we might not need to interact with the medical model of care or the hospital setting. One thing I tell all my clients, is that as an out-of-hospital midwife it is part of my job to make difficult calls and sometimes that requires we change settings from out-of-hospital to in-hospital. In the end, this is essentially what my clients hire me for. It is a part of my job to ensure the safety of the mom and baby and I am an expert in identifying when the need for the medical model of care and in hospital setting is necessary.
Dominique Clothiaux’s overall career transfer rate is lower than 10% and my caesarean rate is even lower at 5-6%. While the national caesarean rate is 36%.