Colorado Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
MMC mamas, please come in
Tell me what you loved the most and liked the least about your experience there. I know that generally everyone raves about their experience, but I would like to hear other stuff too. I am planning on birthing #2 there, but so far am not necessarily swooning about the whole thing yet, but maybe it's too early or I am expecting too much.
DS#1 - 8/2009
my read shelf:
my read shelf:
Re: MMC mamas, please come in
I loved it there, enough to give birth to two babies there while I definitely didn't want to have two babies at a hospital. The freedom to listen to my body and give birth to my baby without unnecessary interventions was huge for me. But I definitely connected better with some midwives more than others. My favorite midwife just eft last month... And I liked it a little better when it was run less like an OB office when I had Lexi (wher you didn't have to see a nurse first so there was no waiting in an exam room ever. So I guess I didn't necessarily love the prenatal visits the second time around, but when my baby was posterior and having major decels and needed to come out now they got me out of the water quickly and put me on the birth stool with oxygen to get him out quickly and safely. And they were totally calm and supportive of me while that was going on. From my experience in the hospital with Lucy I think that my outcome with max would have been very different if I was in a hospital. There is no way I could have pushed him out in te hospital birth position quickly enough and the decels started when my water broke several minutes before he was born. Had an OB broken my water earlier and made me push in hospital position I have a strong feeling it would have been a forceps, vacuum, or surgical delivery, which was obviously unnecessary, but with other relatively routine minor interventions in a hospital would have made it necessary.
I delivered 3 1/2 years ago, so MMC has grown a lot since then. It was less midwives and much smaller then, but that doesn't mean better, just different. I was a second-time mom, so I didn't have to go through all the classes (although I think they ask all moms to do that now).
Good - Midwives were awesome and relaxed, they talked a lot to me about my anxiety going from a mom of one to a mom of 2, they were open and honest, they did the right thing when my birth was abnormal (although, I can't say they were super calm - one of them was freaking a little b/c she hadn't been at a breech birth ever), their follow-up care was great (that was when they still came to your house after the birth instead of having you come in a few days later).
Basically it was like a home delivery where I didn't have to clean-up the mess and the midwives are so knowledgeable and fun to chat with.
Cons - Appointments were longer as usual with midwives vs. OBs, but the waiting was also long - sometimes I'd wait 30-min past my appt time to get in (and I skipped some since they took a long time and I didn't need extra monitoring), hmmm, I can't think of too many more. My birth was an unexpected breech, but the outcome was great so it wasn't an issue. I was transferred to Swedish hospital after for a 4th degree tear/episiotomy repair and that was also a good experience. No judgement from them about being a MMC mom - actually a lot of the nurses and the doc who did the repair were impressed by my breech delivery and how well the midwives handled the situation - despite it's frantic nature when I went to push. I was still home that same day with my baby boy.
Honestly, MMC is a great, supportive, relaxing place to have a baby, but if I were to have another, I would love to do a home birth, so you can see where I lean toward.
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
I am going to start off by saying that I love MMC, but I feel some of the shiny veneer as been removed for me in the past few months.
I swiched to MMC for my 2nd birth when I was 29 weeks and I loved that at the first appointment they spent an hour with me going over my medical history and birth wishes to make sure MMC was the right place for me. Since I did switch so late in pregnancy I had to meet all the midwives on a short schedule and there were a few I didn't get to know well. Luckily, one of my favorite midwives was on call when I went into labor. I loved their old exam rooms and am not a fan of their new clinic location. I agree that it does feel very like a doctor's office.
I was overdue (41w4d) and I loved that they seemed to actually care about helping me deliver at the birth center and not just saying we scheduled you for an induction on Tuesday see you then. Which is what happened with my 1st birth. The oncall midwife called me daily after I reached 41w to offer advice, see how I was doing, and discuss what we could do naturally to urge my body it was ok have a baby.
My birth was magical (really!) It was night and day from my hospital birth. The atmosphere was relaxed, I had total control over what I wanted or didn't want, and the birth pool was amazing. I felt the midwife, student midwife, and nurse were fully there to support me mentally, emotionally, and physically
My least favorite part of my experience at MMC was my transfer. I was one of the few in MMCs history that had a true emergency transfer. I did not truly grasp the severity or the emergent nature of my transfer until a few weeks postpartum. I felt the staff was fully compentent in handling the transfer and they truly know when the situation is out of their control. The midwife kept a calm demeanor which rubbed off on me.
In my postpartum care I once again felt like they cared about me as a person and gave me every resource available to heal emotionally and physically. I was not able to fully digest what happened after my birth until this past December. I sat down with the midwife that attended my birth and we talked for almost two hours, rehashing the details and put together a possible game plan for next time (if there is ever one). I don't think you could ever get two hours with an OB. I am also happy with the way they handled my miscarriage this past September.
The reason I feel like I had such an awesome experience with MMC is because of my favorite midwife (who is now a friend), but she left at the beginning of January and it just doesn't feel like the same place to me. Also, when and if we have #3 I am not sure MMC will be the right place for me because of my transfer and some similar issues I had after my DD's birth. I would not be a risk out and they would absolutely do a more active management of the 3rd stage for me, but I really do not want to be a transfer again. I feel that if I had been at the hospital to begin with my specific situation would not have gotten so bad, but noone really knows. My feelings really don't have anything to do with MMC and their philosophy or model of care, just what I think will be best for me in the future.
M/C 09.30.11
Good - my decisions were respected every step of the way. They handled my PP hemmohrage well. I did connect with some of the midwives.
Bad - I did not like the new upstairs offices, since it was hard for me to bring my other kids there, unlike when the offices were downstairs. I hated the way they handled my billing as a self-pay client and surprised me with charges after the birth that I thought were included in the fee (like a $75 charge to start an IV, and a charge for putting in 2 stitches). I hated waiting for appointments, sometimes up to 45 minutes (but usually more like 10-20). I hated how big the practice got, so I felt like I could not really connect with all of the midwives. Also, I am still bitter that they completely dropped my care after my last birth ended in a transfer.
Overall with my history I was not a good candidate for home birth and I loved MMC much better than my hospital birth. I would go there again in a heartbeat even though there were a lot of negatives. I had a lot more negatives with my first hospital birth than I did at MMC.
Honestly I wish someone else would open another freestanding birth center and throw them a little competition.