Willamette Health Partners Midwives

Really a 3.5, but I’ll round up.
I had been under the care of an OB for the first 7 months of my pregnancy. When I moved back to Salem I had no idea that doctors are hesitant to pick up a patient that has been under the care of another physician for the majority of a pregnancy or whatever else. My primary care physician (no longer involved in OB care) referred me to Salem Hospital OB.
I called and was informed that the OB’s were not accepting new patients, so I could have a midwife. The inner hippy in me told me that this was a fine alternative, and so I headed in to sign a release for my previous physicians file. While there, I learned that I would not have one mid-​wife assigned to me and instead would see whoever was working on whatever day I had my apppointment. As for delivery, whoever was on call would do it. As it turned out, the mid-​wives were off on the day that I delivered so a Salem Hospital doctor delivered my baby anyway. Ugh.
The mid-​wives are very, um, «spiritual». Maybe that’s not the right word, but they don’t suscribe to the «rush» mentality that you will find in regular OB’s. They do believe that babies come in time and that your body is perfectly capable of doing the job in most cases. I appreciate this aspect, as birthing is scary enough as is without the insertion of a doctor with an impending tee time. If you’re scared of the idea of a mid-​wife, know that many are real doctors and they treat you like a human instead of a medical case.
Like the nurses the mid-​wives vary in personality and temperment. I found it to be very uncomfortable that they treated me like it was my first time there at each visit, forgetting that I had seem them the last time.
The one HUGE upside to a mid-​wife is the amount of time spent talking to you about your pregnancy. Unlike regular OB’s who might spend 5 min of each appointment with you, these ladies will talk to you for as long as you want and answer question after question. They won’t be walking backwards toward the door while you’re on your 9^th question. While this may make for longer appointment times, appreciate the time and concern they have.