**UPDATED March 8, 2021 to add information about a new midwifery clinic in Hamilton and new pain relief options for home births**
**UPDATED December 9, 2019 to add information about a Family Physician in private practice attending births**
**UPDATED October 29, 2019 to add information about hospital discharge for midwifery patients**
Are you concerned about prenatal care in Hamilton? If you just peed on a stick and thought, “I’m pregnant! What now?” Well, you’re not alone.
Most people have no idea what to do next after they find out they are pregnant.
In a perfect world there would be a registry you could sign up for your phone. It will tell you how to find prenatal care in Hamilton, if there are birth centers near you, the locations of all the maternity stores and a list of every class available to help you find out what you need to know to cope with pregnancy, birth and new parenthood.
I think there is something like that. This is me! I am a doula, childbirth educator and infant feeding specialist. If you have a question about what to do and where to go when you get pregnant, I think it’s me.
So, what do you need to do next?
I suggest telling your partner, if you have one. If you don’t have a partner, tell your best friend or family member.
The next step is to connect with a care provider. You can self-refer to a wide variety of care providers for prenatal care in Hamilton. There is no need to go to your family doctor first to get a formal referral.
Here’s a breakdown of all the providers who support births at our two maternity hospitals: McMaster University Medical Center (MUMC) or St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (St. Joe’s).
An obstetrician is a doctor who provides prenatal care in Hamilton. They are surgeons who can perform cesarean births as well as related gynecological procedures. There are many obstetricians in Hamilton. They practice in a variety of settings including private practice, hospital-based clinics and the high-risk Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic at McMaster University Medical Center.
The advantages: surgeons are trained and experienced in handling high-risk situations and you can be cared for even if your pregnancy or delivery is complicated or dangerous. Overall they practice expectant medicine: they watch and wait to act only when medically necessary to benefit both parent and baby.
And, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out something that makes Hamilton obstetricians special: every OB is a faculty member of McMaster University’s medical program. This means that each is a professor and often teaches residents and medical students and therefore they must deliver the quality of care that learning doctors can emulate.
The weakness: Surgeons spend a lot of time with higher-risk patients and may be less tolerant of a wait-and-see approach in some situations. They carry a very large caseload that includes both obstetric and gynecology patients leaving little time for discussion during appointments. They only deliver to the hospital. Finally, because they work a once weekly shift on call at the hospital, it is unlikely that a patient will have their own OB to deliver their baby unless the delivery is scheduled. Postpartum care includes a wellness check for the new parent at 6 weeks postpartum.
Find an Obstetrician in Hamilton Ontario:
Family practitioners are also medical doctors, like obstetricians. However, they are not obstetric surgeons. Through the Maternity Center of Hamilton, FPs can provide prenatal care in Hamilton in addition to birth and postpartum care. They work alongside OBs in case the birth becomes complicated.
Currently, Hamilton has a Family Practice doctor who sees patients throughout pregnancy and attends births. This doctor will provide the perfect continuity for a family who wants to build a lifelong relationship with a doctor during pregnancy and beyond.
The advantages: Because FPs train in a group scenario that gives a patient a better chance of knowing who will deliver their baby. Also because of the group practice arrangement, a pregnant woman will not be turned away due to a booked vacation or lack of space for new patients. Postpartum supportive care includes baby care and ongoing office health checkups. FPs can also provide access to related support such as in-clinic breastfeeding support and mental health support.
The weakness: Only family practitioners support hospital births. They have no surgical training and require OB consultation and supervision should a high risk scenario arise. Post-birth support is in the office only.
Find a Family Practice Doctor in Hamilton Ontario:
Midwives are trained pregnancy and birth and postpartum specialists for low-risk patients. They provide prenatal care in Hamilton covering pregnancy, birth and postpartum support. Like FPs, they are not surgeons and therefore work with OBs to provide safe pregnancy and birth support when health complications arise.
The advantages: You can choose to have a home birth with a midwife. But, you can get an epidural in the hospital, too! Midwives provide longer prenatal meetings than other practitioners with meetings lasting 30 to 45 minutes. Midwives practice so-called family-centered care which means that their style of care is more collaborative and the balance of decision-making power rests with the pregnant woman.
When giving birth at home with midwives, you can use nitrous oxide for pain relief. Check with the specific clinic to see if they carry these supplies for home birth use.
They will typically use a wider range of non-medical tools and techniques to help their patients achieve a safe and enjoyable birth. Because midwives work in teams, it is highly likely that a patient will be supported by their midwife during the birth. Studies show that even when people transition to hospital from home birth, or require obstetric consultation, midwives are associated with fewer interventions and have good survival statistics for both births. at home and hospital. Parents who give birth in a hospital with a midwife and it is determined that they and their baby are healthy and stable can go home after just 3 hours.
Many people believe that postpartum care with midwives is what makes midwifery care truly superior. Midwives visit with their patients at home for the first two weeks and with ongoing health checks up to six to eight weeks in the office.
The weakness: Midwives are not doctors and have very limited prescribing powers and require the supervision of an obstetrician in higher risk cases. They also cannot perform surgery.
Find a midwife in Hamilton:
Let’s also talk about doulas. Because we also provide prenatal care in Hamilton, not just the medical kind.
Doulas are people who provide companionship and guidance throughout pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. Although they do not provide primary medical care during the prenatal and postpartum period and do not deliver babies, they are on call with their clients to answer questions, provide guidance and support for physical comfort and may help with their clients to face their challenges during pregnancy, birth and uncertainty after birth.
While no one technically needs a doula to have a baby, just like no one needs to join a gym to exercise, joining a gym and hiring a trainer can make one’s efforts more effective and give them exact tools to best achieve their goals.
The advantages: Doulas support clients pursuing births of all types. Doulas can talk on the phone, by text, or by email, about anything to do with having a baby and any time of the day or night as needed. They work in the client’s home at times convenient for the client and provide emotional, social and mental health support focused on the client’s needs.
The weakness: A doula cannot guarantee a certain birth outcome. Unlike medical care providers, doulas are not free. They will work with clients to find a payment plan that fits all budgets (and, hint hint, the sooner you hire a doula, the longer it will take you to pay) but their services are not covered by OHIP.
No matter what type of prenatal care provider you decide to go with, we think a doula makes the perfect addition to your birth support team.
Do you have questions about different providers? Need to discuss what type of provider is best for you? You can call us anytime at 289 426 5170 to speak with someone with over a decade of experience working with doctors and midwives in Hamilton, Ontario.
