Seeking a Midwife in the Bloomington Area.

I had a mid-wife with both my girls and no they weren't home births. I delivered with the same woman, she's with Health Partners and we delivered at Abbott NW. She offices in Bloomington at the HP Clinic as well as in St. Louis Park, (Fridays only). The best experience, she was always calm, educational, put me and most importantly my husband at ease. If you are having a "normal, uncomplicated" pregnancy, this is the way to go and actually that's what HP's recommends. If while you're in delivery a complication comes up, there are OB's on staff and ready to jump in. WHen it came to delivery, she was very calming, not rushed, encouraged me to listen to my body. My first I had an epidural and the second went so fast I had nothing. They are fine with either. I say check it out, in my experience you won't be disappointed. We even had a few other Mid-wives for our routine appts when my regular one was out and great experiences with them too. They all are about putting the woman and her needs first and it shows.

I too am a HUGE fan of TBOBB! I recently gave birth with the help of a midwife at Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury. Throughout my pregnancy I was treated very, very well by them. When it came time to have my baby my labor lasted 41 hours! The nurses and midwives were awesome. I have attended many hospital births and so has my mom. We were both SO impressed with the care I received there. I love the idea of home-birth, but with my first baby, I wasn't quite ready. I chose Woodwinds before I was even pregnant because of the reviews they received and also because they offer water birth. They have a special L&D room with the most fabulous birthing tub that my son was born in :) I just can't say enough about how amazing that clinic/hospital care was. I will definately have any of our future children there. I'm sorry, I'm tired so I appologize if this is a little choppy. Definately look into that hospital, it truly is the next best thing to home-birth.
Best Wishes!

PS...My favorite midwives that I saw for prenatal care were Carrie Frantzich, Linda Gellerman and Rebecca Barroso.

The Park Nicollet midwives are great! They work out of multiple locations. I never saw a doctor through my pregnancy and birth, only the midwives. It was a wonderful experience, they took time with me to listen, believe in a woman's ability to give birth naturally, don't dwell on scary statistics (I was 40 at the time), were encouraging about my ability to continue to be active (I ran until the 7th month), and gave me time and were there continuously to birth my daughter naturally (over 3 hours of pushing). The experience was terrific and my daughter born strong and healthy and I had no drugs and no stitches.

I live in Bloomington and used the ParkNicollet midwives at St Francis Hospital. I loved how much time the midwives took with me at every prenatal appt--I never felt rushed or like I was asking too many questions. And I absolutely LOVED St Francis Hospital! My son ended up in the Level 2 nursery with some complications for 4 days after the birth, and the hospital let me stay in my huge room where I had labored and delivered for all 4 days, even AFTER I had officially been checked out after 2 days! They even continued to feed me for free! The nurses were wonderful the entire time!
And like another poster said, Shakopee isn't very far away from Bloomington--I actually timed it, and it was about the same amount of time for me to get to Fairview Southdale as it was to drive to St Francis.

I used the midwives at St Francis hospital in Shakopee (they work through Park Nicollet Clinics) I absolutely LOVED them, and I will never go anywhere else to deliver my future babies. They are so personable and good at what they do! I really love st Francis hospital too! The birthing rooms are HUGE and you deliver in the same room you stay in, so no transfering around. They also have full size bathrooms in your room so you are able to use the tub while in labor! Shakopee sounds far away but it's ony 20 minutes from Bloomington. Using the midwives there is such a great combination of natural practices in the safe enviornment of a hospital!

Here is the website link for the clinic, just click on Midwifery in the pull down box. http://www.parknicollet.com/Clinic/doctors/clinic_info/cl...

Feel free to contact me if you have anymore questions.

E.

Hi Laura,

I've seen the movie you mentioned and it was great--it really captures the difference in how OB's vs midwives practice, plus does a great job of bringing facts to the usually blown out of proportions objections to delivering with a midwife outside of a hospital setting.

I have five children. The first was born at Fairview Riverside in MPLS with the midwives there. The rest were born at home with a Certified Professional Midwife. Since you mentioned you are open to delivering at home, I will tell you what I think are definite advantages.

First of all, I stronly believe that simply being home, in your own environment, surrounded by people you trust and who you chose to be there is a huge factor when it comes to managing the "sensations of labor" (have to put that it quotes b/c it is a phrase you'L. hear midwives use often instead of saying, "labor pain". But, let's face it--labor hurts!) What I mean is that I think that being in your own, safe environment is as good as any pain medication you can get in the hospital. Now, it's not an epidural where you won't feel anything, but I truly believe it is just as good. Women "freak out" in labor when they are scared--not knowing what will happen, how long the labor is going to be, how much more intense it is going to get, getting pressure from the docs/midwives that they are not "progressing" fast enough (this did happen to me with the midwife at the hospital, too. I'd be happy to share my experience w/ this if you are interested.) etc. As I've often said, labor is a head game--its about staying in the moment, and not succumbing to worry. All of these are much easier to alleviate when you are at home where you know and trust everyone that is there.

Also, being home is an intimate environment that can't be dublicated in the hospital. Not really a big deal when it comes to considering the other factors, but wanted to mention it.

You mentioned delivering in the hospital "just in case something does go wrong". The certified nurse midwives who practice in the Twin Cities area are extremely well qualified and trained to watch for signs of any problems that would require a transfer to the hospital. Its easy to get the impression from hearing birth stories that "emergencies" arise suddenly and are completely unexpected or unforseen. That is not the case. When interviewing midwives, ask them how they handle complications in labor and what they are trained to do. If you are healthy, have had a normal pregnancy, and have no other risk factors,there is no reason to worry about delivering at home.

Another plus for delivering at home is how involved your husband can be. He becomes part of your "birth team" not just an observer relegated to the sidelines and asked to keep out of the way. I watched an episode of "The Baby Story" once and laughed out loud when the dad was told he could help with the delivery. Basically, he suited up in the gown and gloves (also not necessary for him at home) and stood next to the doc who completely caught the baby and let the dad put his hands around hers after the baby was born. I guess if that counts in the hospital world as being involved, so be it. But, that is not how it is at home. From actively helping to prepare the room for the birth (to quote a movie line that describes most first time dads when their wives are in labor "Give me an occupation or I shall go mad!!", to being my first and most important support in labor, to REALLY catching our baby as she was delivered, my husband was involved with every part of the birth process. Its actually quite comical to hear our group of friends, all home birth dads, get together and talk about labor. You would think that they had actually delivered the babies themselves!

I hope this little bit of info helps. I know several midwives in the area that deliver at home and would be happy to pass on their info if you would like.

Whichever route you choose, I wish you the best!

Hi Laura,

Congrats on your pregnancy!

One thing to keep in mind is that midwives either do hospital deliveries, OR they do home births. I talked with many, many clinics and midwives when I was in the process of choosing one, and I never found one that did both. (Of course, if you have a home birth and then you need to be transported to the hospital for some reason, your midwife will go with you!). So, I think a good place to start is to decide which type of birth you want, then choose a midwife.

My pregnancy and birth were wonderful, relaxed affairs. When I hear other people talk about their pregnancies and births, I just cringe: women being scared to do or eat ANYTHING; not being able to eat while in labor; routine episiotomies; fourth degree tearing; I could go on and on....

I never once saw an MD while pregnant. I saw the same midwife for all my prenatal appointments, which were 1 hour long, and my husband was at all but one of them. When I delivered (in a hosptial), an RN assisted my midwife.

I am going to give you two midwife recommendations: one who does hospital births, and one who does home births. Neither are in Bloomington, but they might be good starting points for you. My nurse midwife is Stephanie Johnson, and she does hospital births. She is a Nurse Practitioner and sees clients at the clinic at Woodwinds Hospital. She does deliveries both at Woodwinds and at St John's in St. Paul. When I was seeing Stephanie, she was in a private practice in a different location; now she is in the pool of HealthEast midwives. What this means is that you can see her for all your prenatal visits, but when it comes time to deliver, I *think* you will get whatever midwife is on-call/working. (Please call to confirm.)

I can't say enough good things about Stephanie, and I still see her for well-woman exams:

http://www.healtheast.org/providers/provider.cfm?DocID=31024

The home birth midwife I would like to recommend is Dr. Amy Johnson-Grass. In addition to being a midwife, she also is a Naturopathic Doctor. My family has seen her in her ND capacity, and she is wonderful. She has a clinic in St. Paul, near downtown, off of Grand Ave. The plus to her is that since she is also an ND, she could do your baby's well-child exams, too:

http://www.dramyjohnsongrass.com/midwifery.htm

Lastly, the closest free-standing birth center to the Twin Cities is in Menomonie, WI, which is about 1 hour away, just off of I-94. I seriously considered going there, but in the end decided the distance was too much, considering we were having a winter baby and I was concerned about the roads:

http://www.morningstarbirth.com/

Feel free to contact me if you want any more info or just want to chat. I am passionate about midwifery and natural birthing!