UNT Midwive’s Group

1– I attempted to connect with this UNT Midwife group twice to inquire about becoming a patient. The 1^st time I used their recommended website inquiry– no response. The 2^nd time I called to ask what the best contact method was and was given an email to a head midwife. I spent time creating the email, had my husband edit, sent off — and and again NO RESPONSE at all. Not even a «Im sorry we are not taking new patients» or «Please schedule a time to meet us» or «here is a list of some OBGYNs in our area» or just some type of acknowledgement would have been appreciated.
I will not attempt to contact them again.

I switched to a different midwife as soon as I could. Wait was never less than an hour and a half past appointment time. Receptionist was rude as can be! I met two of the midwives — one was incredibly spacey and forgetful, the other was apathetic and short with me when I tried to ask questions.
My second appointment, I had blood drawn, peed in a cup, talked to the midwife for 10 minutes, and got pushed out the door with a stack of parenting magazines. I was told I’d have to save my questions for next time, as they were running behind. I understand running behind, but it’s not my problem and shouldn’t take away from my care.
So much happier where I’m at now!

The idea of using a midwife was first introduced to me in nursing school. My labor and delivery rotation was taught by some pretty hardcore midwives – people that had over 7 kids and even delivered some of them at home. I learned in nursing school that there’s less chance of receiving an episiotomoy or a C-​section with a midwife than with an OB-​GYN (it may be that the midwives are more prone to rubbing the perineum with olive oil, or that physicians are more likely to attend high risk births, but whatever – this is a business review, not a peer review editorial in a research journal). There’s also growing interest in midwives from documentaries such as «The Business of Being Born» (check it out on Netflix).
Midwives are recommended for healthy, low risk pregnancies. I did not want any medications, and I wanted a water birth (something else I learned about in nursing school). If you want a water birth, you will need a midwife. This group came highly recommended from some of my colleagues. There are several midwives in the group, and they try to rotate your appointments so you can meet all of them so at least you’ll be familiar with the one who ends up delivering your baby. All of the midwives are very experienced and work hard to ensure that you get the birthing plan you want. Most of the midwives are very personable, will give you a lot of attention, and will answer all of your questions thoroughly. You never get the impression that they are rushed, but judging from the packed waiting rooms, they are pretty busy.
Why minus one star? Pretty high class worries; nothing really untoward. There’s two midwives out of the six that do not have the best bedside manner (ie., just not as personable as the others). Could be a personality clash, IDK. One of them in particular I question if she even reviewed my chart because she would ask me if I was married on more than one occasion. The other reason I subtracted a star is that after I delivered, none of the midwives from the group checked on me while I was in the hospital. A midwife student rounded instead. I know the student was more than capable of answering my questions, but I did have the expectation that I was going to see a member of the group. All in all, I plan on using them again for my next pregnancy, but I will make my expectations clear next time.
Good luck and happy pregnancy to you!

This group also practices at:
UNTHealth at Alliance
12 650 North Beach, Suite 148
Fort Worth, TX 76 244
Which is where I visited them all throughout my pregnancy. When I first got pregnant I knew immediately I wanted a midwife. Through my research, I found that many women felt they provided more personalized, better care. They promoted «Natural» birth and you could avoid the unnecessary pressure and «scariness» of hospital doctors who «just wanted to drug you up to speed things along and get you in, out and on to the next patient all while making as much money as possible by any means necessary.»
First of all I was disappointed when I found out you aren’t assigned ONE midwife (so you can get to know them on a personal level, after all… they’re seeing EVERYTHING, am I right?!) No, you see a different one each time basically, and your baby is going to be delivered by whoever is on duty that day/​hour. Ok, whatever. So all the midwives are nice, but of course you have your favorites and YOU HOPE that one just happens to be on duty on your special day! It’s also funny, because I had to defend my decision when I told my Mom. SHe was worried they wouldn’t know what they were doing and that I could die because they don’t receive the same medical training that a doctor does. Man, I hate when my mother is right!
So, of course, after 36 hours of labor went through many midwives on duty. First it started with a new lady I never met before, Then It was my first choice of who I wanted to deliver my baby, then it was my second choice… I had high hopes my baby would be delivered by her when she broke my water… but NOPE! Ugh. Of course, the person who ended up delivering my baby was the one I absolutely did NOT want. True to form, I was never offered any drugs though, which was great!
I tried a tub birth, but for some reason the Texas Health Fort Worth Hospital’s labor and delivery section’s water STOPPED WORKING! You seriously can’t make this up. So the tub was less than half full with water that was quickly turning cold. My baby had juuuust started crowning when I was told the water was getting cloudy and they were worried the baby had pooed, therefore making water birth extremely dangerous. SO I get up and walk to the bed for her to check to see if there was meconium inside me, she says clear water gushed out, so maybe I had just peed? I was then asked if I wanted to go back in the tub… pfft hell no. Thank God I didn’t go back in, it turns out it WAS meconium.
After pushing and pushing in what what seemed like hours, I couldn’t get baby’s head out so just as she was about to do a episiotomy I have a big contraction and she does some crazy move and somehow gets baby out! Now, they had been checking baby’s heartbeat literally like every few minutes or so and he was doing just fine, but when he came out he wasn’t fine. He was having trouble breathing because he had inhaled some fluid and/​or meconium. NICU takes him away.
Then they tell me my placenta isn’t detaching by itself and a doctor is called to remove it by hand. Excruciating. Then after I was sewed up I was taken to the maternity ward. No sonogram was performed at all to MAKE SURE all of the placenta was removed just «Yeah it looks like that’s all of it».
EXTREME MISTAKE #1:
«Assuming» all of the placenta was removed. There was still placenta inside me when I had to go to the Emergency room due to being in insane pain and being unable to care for my newborn. They found out through ultrasound, the placenta parts still inside me had of course, gotten infected and cause Sepsis. Something that left untreated, would have caused my untimely death. Not only that, but an abscess had formed behind my uterus, also causing pain.
EXTREME MISTAKE #2:
was when I was in the Fort Worth hospital telling many different midwives (I was there for 3 days) about the horrible pain in my side. They chalked it up to gas/​constipation. Fast forward to me being discharged from said hospital, the pain continues at home and I call the midwives to explain to them again this pain and my 108 degree fever. I was told to take tylenol for 24 hours. Then call them if I go to the hospital, so they can meet me there. WHICH I DO the very next day. They never called me back. They never show up. It wasn’t until basically the day before being discharged from the Alliance hospital (where I was treated and cured.) that I was called by the midwife who delivered my baby and she was just all apologies. Sorry for what happened, sorry for not coming to visit and how she was going to come visit today but she had a family gathering to go to.
In conclusion, I felt abandoned by these women. I really wish I had delivered with a doctor because «nurse», in this case, didn’t cut it. Not only do I feel my situation could have been avoided but also my baby’s. I’m sure not all experiences with this midwife group are bad, maybe mine was just a fluke. Eitherway I’m never going back.