Midwifery: The Hallmark of Civilization

Due to its importance it is assumed that midwifery has existed as long as human civilization.
-"Midwifery", Wikipedia

A classic "chicken and egg" story: Which came first, civilized humans or the midwives who caught them? If you give the the Wikipedia article a quick scan, you might notice that most Western nations have only just begun to reembrace midwifery after several centuries of marginalization. For example, "midwifery was reintroduced as a regulated profession in Canada in the 1990s." The article even suggests that witch hunting was largely an effort to increase birth rates by suppressing midwives.

Wait, if one of the first developments in human civilization is the appearance of midwives, could we say that the disappearance of midwives marks a civilization's collapse into anarchy? Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

Well, either way, you can call us extra-civilized, because we have a midwife. In fact, we have a whole team of them. Four very nice ladies are available 24 hours each day to assist in the weeks leading up to the birth and for a period afterwards.

For the less-civilized among you, let us explain how we arrived at the decision to engage the services of a midwife. There are several factors:
1. R's sister has been borderline fanatical about it for years
2. R's experience for birth #1 was not the best
3. The word "midwifery" is oh so fun to say out loud

Public health care funding for midwifery is brand-new in Alberta. In fact, it's so new that there are hardly enough certified midwives to meet the sudden explosion of demand. Most of the midwives here have had to travel away to Australia -- that bastion of civilization -- to get training that was not available here. Because the supply is so tight, you basically have to get on a waiting list within hours of conception to have a fighting chance of getting a midwife. Lucky for us, a church connection helped us get in with the midwife team of our choice just 5 minutes from our house. R has had a few appointments already, but I have only been to one. Let me tell you how it differed from our typical OB appointment:

WAITING ROOM
There was an enormous tree in the waiting room styled after the Winnie the Pooh series. Kids could go inside the tree and sit at table or play with a stuffed Piglet doll. Our previous OB had a very nice office but the waiting room had little more than several issues of Chatelaine and a sign that said "turn off your cell phone."

EXAM ROOM
The exam room had a big bed in it. Not an exam table -- a bed. Complete with a knitted bedspread, pillow, etc. A far cry from the typical vinyl topped exam table with a roll of newsprint paper. There was big cabinet filled with toys for Scott. He cried when it came time to leave. In the OB's office you could probably find a few interesting toys like cotton swabs or the sharps disposal bin. Then you child would cry for a different reason.

FACE TIME
I don't want to give the impression that we disliked our OB in Ottawa. Quite the contrary. He was a fabulous guy and we felt very confident with him. However, he was one man and he probably had hundreds of patients so we only got a sliver of his time. When we went to the hospital, he was asleep in another room while we were attended to by a nurse and a resident that we'd never met because they didn't want to wake our doctor. Conversely, this team of 4 midwives had a 1-hour introductory appointment with us and have given us similar attention since then.

Our whole midwifery experience so far has seemed very ... what's the word ... civilized.