The Art of Midwifery - Alamo Area Midwifery

The Midwives Model of Care™ is based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life events. The Midwives Model of Care includes:

• monitoring the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother through-out the childbearing cycle

• providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support

• minimizing technological interventions and;

• identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention

The application of this model has been proven to reduce to incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.

The Midwives Model of Care definition above is Copyright © 1996-2001, Midwifery Task Force, All Rights Reserved.

Be informed: Look into the history of your doctor or midwife on their respective Texas Regulatory Board websites.

Texas Midwifery Board

Texas Medical Board

Documented history of midwives dates back to at least 1900 BC. Midwifery is one of the oldest professions in the world. Until the early twentieth century (in the United States), nearly all childbirth remained in the hands of the midwife and the mother, within the home. Following the advent of automobile, more physicians, the notion that women were far too fragile to "handle" childbirth and the frequent use of "twilight sleep" to assure painless and "memory-free" birth, childbirth rapidly went into the hospital setting. With physicians "managing" labors and deliveries, the use of multiple (dangerous) interventions became commonplace. The 1930s saw a sharp increase in hospital deliveries, however there was not an increase in healthy deliveries. The infant and maternal mortality rates actually increased. By the 1960s nearly all births occurred in the hospital. Midwifery began to dwindle, however, there was an increased awareness in the realm of "Natural Childbirth"; this increase seems to coincide with the women's feminist movement, where women were rejecting the idea that they were fragile and could not withstand difficult work (such as labor and birth) as a man could. Since this time, women have been slowly taking charge of their health and the health of their families, this begins with a healthy pregnancy and a gentle, empowering birth!

Childbirth in the home and midwifery care is making a huge comeback! Many women are realizing that they DO have a choice in where they give birth. They are also studying and educating themselves on the simple facts. Planned Homebirth (with healthy uncomplicated pregnancies and a skilled attendant assisting) has been found to be safe, if not safer than birth in the hospital. Women and their families are embracing this knowledge and seeing that there is clearly a BETTER WAY TO BIRTH! They are taking back the control and power and birthing on their own terms, just as labor and birth should be. View the study published in the British Medical Journal regarding the safety of home deliveries.