Midwifery Today Community

I travel a lot, and I've attended births in seven countries now. Next month I'll be flying to Thailand to attend a birth as well, and hopefully going to Bali to volunteer at Bumi Sehat later this year.

Anyone else practice midwifery on the road? I'd love to have some more discussion about it :)

Wow, how do you manage to find the women? You must have a great midwifery network

Mostly they find me! LOL

A lot of word of mouth, and mostly I have a strong travelling network; most of my clients are fellow travellers and expats living in random places who don't want to go to their home country to birth, and don't want to rely on local maternity care in third world countries.

Wow, that is really cool!

 That is absolutely facinating!  Did you have a career that required travel before you became a midwife?  I'd love to hear more!

This is such an improtant service for expat women or missionary families. I flew to India to help a family have a baby when I was single. I stayed about a month, explored the city and after she had the baby I was on my way. I travel around the US as well helping midwife friends have their babies. I love to travel and as a woman who has lived in various countries and had my midwife travel to me both times, this is a huge thing! You have to consider the time you spend in country and what a transport situation will look like. Other than that just explore and enjoy the family and the time spent!

majikfaerie,

did you ever have to take someone to the local hospital?  wondering how that would go.

Sounds great!  Do you do some sort of research before you goto a new place...new culture...?  it must be interesting to learn about how other "foreign" expecting families view birth...and how they expect to be served by a midwife.

 

Its good to have really clear communication of expectations before an agreement is made, of course. Flexibility is crucial though! When I went over to India to help the family have thier homebirth, I had booked tickets based on her due date and when I got there she measured smallish and I thought oh man I am going to be here an extra month. Turned out her dates were right on and she had her baby 3 weeks after I got there.

I would think that most families seeking our care already have the home birth culture. I would just serve them in whatever they need, same as here.

How are you hooked up in such a way to have people from India call you?  did you say that you are a lay midwife?

 

 

well it was a very roundabout way and I have not had this happen since. My childhood church had contacted me because they heard that this family was looking for a midwife and they knew I left to persue becoming a midwife. They contacted me with the family's info and then I contacted them and it worked out perfect. We communicated through e mail and I talked to her previous care providers (midwives at a birth center). it went from there.

I am a CPM and in process of renewing my NM license.

When my kids get older I will be willing to do this again for families that are overseas, if my practice allows for that.

sorry I didnt reply for so long - I was in Tasmania the past 2 weeks without internet.

mangaP:

did you ever have to take someone to the local hospital?  wondering how that would go.

I did. I've had one transfer to a local hospital (in Thailand) for FTP and maternal exhaustion, which was due to a brow presentation. mama laboured for 2 days and we tried pretty much everything but couldnt get the baby to shift position. transferred for a c/s. the hospital staff were surprisingly respectful of me, the head nurse even handed over the mama's chart for me to fill in overnight. they allowed me to stay in her room, and I was able to negotiate on the couple's behalf for things like non-vaxing and putting the baby into the arms of the father immediately, BF support, etc.

I'm sure it wont always be that way, I've had mixed responses the couple of other times I've transferred a client here at home.

As to going to strange countries; well, I've already travelled in over 50 countries, most of which were before starting down the midwifery path, so I have a good grounding in different cultures and languages. I usually do a little reading up on a place I've not been to before, but these days there aren't too many of those left LOL

I would so love to do this.

I'd already had intentions on doing some teaching work in Egypt, oneday, because I love the total well woman and life time ( cradle to grave) focus that the countryside Daya's have there ... though not all the practices (FGM etc...). So I figure and exchange of cultural best practices would be well accepted.

I'd definately beopen to international travel after completing CNM, both for the multicultural experience and for acquiring births for CPM PEP documentation, since hospital births don't count and CNM homebirths in my state aren't legal.

 

Hello! I have a question for you- a wonderful friend of mine is wanting to get pregnant and we are in Bucharest, Romania- she had a beautiful natural birth with a doctor who is no longer practicing... doctors supportive of natural birth are rare here! My question is- could they get in contact with you and hire you to come and deliver their little one next year (she is not yet pregnant, waiting to find a good provider!). Thank you so much!

blessings-

amanda perkins

www.hagarprojectromania.org

Hi moasaemma :)

You're very welcome to get in touch with me or put your friend in touch with me. I've been very interested in the natural parenting community in Romania lately, since I discovered there's a forum for natural parenting/ unschooling there that links to my blog regularly - I get a lot of hits from Romanian unschoolers and home birthers. Of course, I can't read it coz it's all in Romanian LOL

Anyway, I can't say whether I personally would be able to come, but I'd be very happy to talk with your friend and be a provider of support and information - I might be able to pass their contacts on to other midwives I know who might travel as well.

Wow, I would love to be able to have a midwife come to me.  I'm in urban China and am hitting wall after wall trying to find a practitioner who will attend a home birth.