Back to Advice and Birth Stories **************************************************************************** Facility Name: UW Advice from: Labor Doula Advice Date: May 2004
The UW is an interesting place. On the one hand they have a group of practicing midwives there and on the other it is a teaching hospital. The nurse-midwives work closely with the staff at the hospital so the midwifery experience is a little different than it is at Group Health with their nurse-midwives but I really liked the couple of them I have worked with and they were at the labor quite a bit which is always a good sign! I have also worked with doctors there and had some excellent experiences and some not so great--you need to talk with your provider before your birth to make sure it will be as you want it. When moms don't specify that they don't want students in the room I've seen as many as 7 students come into observe, two of them did vaginal checks and her real doctor did a vaginal check. I think it is important to get great doctors by letting them learn but sometimes it seems more like a classroom than a birth for mom--and this introducing a higher chance for infection (forget the exams which already pose a much higher chance to introduce bacteria into mom, just the sheer amount of people who come in and out and are doing the same in other rooms made me nervous!) A lot of women love giving birth there--I would try to find someone who was really happy with their experience and ask them about it. Best Advice is to bring a partner and a doula who can help maintain a calm atmosphere. The medical students want to practice medicine and practice the use of the technology they have and you want to give birth--the most low risk and unlikely to need technology "field of medicine" there is. **************************************************************************** Click Here to Read a UW Birth Story from Birthways