| Midwifery Care Associates Simmonds and Simmonds, Chartered Phone: (240) 514-0140 Fax: (240) 514-0148 Email: cnm@midwiferycareassociates.com |
| 11301 Rockville Pike, 3rd Floor North Bethesda, MD 20895 (in the White Flint Mall) ~ 77 Thomas Johnson Drive, Suite H Frederick, MD 21702 |
| "Certified Nurse Midwives offering respectful, competent, gentle health care to women throughout their lives" |
| Homepage Meet the Midwives History of MCA Forms, Links, and Handouts Consulting Physicians Birth Stories Shady Grove Hospital |
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| Hi, we just had our first child. We had a great experience with the midwives in Bethesda/Rockville, and really recommend them. We talked to several OBs. We just wanted someone who was going to deal with us like people, listening to our concerns and sharing the options, not just telling us what we had to do or treating us like machines. We wanted a doctor who was in a small enough practice that we could get to know, and be known by, our doctor or doctors. We needed someone who would try to give us some small measure of personal attention and a bit of actual concern about our situation. We couldn't find anyone like that who was accepting patients andywhere near out home in Silver Spring despite several recommendations from friends. Someone recommended Midwifery Care Associates. At first I've got to admit that I didn't take it seriously. After all, I'd always assumed that people who lived in the modern world and had the resources would, should and can get what I thought was the best care, the care of a doctor. I'm not sure now, but I think I thought that any other caregivers were somehow backward or less able or something. Little did I know! So when we went in to an orientation with the midwives we were flabbergasted. They were knowledgeable. They seemed to care. They took questions and actually had a conversation with us. They were registered nurses with advanced training and hundreds of births each under their belts. They were affiliated with a doctors' practice and patients would give birth at a modern hospital with modern medicine, technology, and care at hand. We went for a few visits and were sold. Modern medicine, machines and training. Caring people who knew their stuff and actually would talk with us. And a promise that, unlike the practice of many OBs, we would regularly see the midwives for the whole of our prenatal visits and could expect that they would be with us the whole time we were laboring in the hospital. We were very positive throughout the prenatal period. Then we were blown away by the birth. The midwife on duty counseled us through preterm labor, through losts of contractions that didn't lead anywhere, then guided us all of the way home. She was incredibly supportive, capable, and knowledgeable. We always felt like we were getting the best care. And we got to be part of the process. She encouraged us, guided us toward good choices, but always let us make the choices. She enabled and encouraged us to be mobile, to labor in a variety of positions, to try a varitey of methods of dealing with the pain. And it was painful (yeah, natural childbirth will have to be covered in another post, pain meds were always an option), but somehow, we managed it with the midwife's help. She was brilliant and she stayed with us. And when things got challenging, she handled it with poise, skill born of experience, confidence and incredible ability. All the while she had nurses assisting and the best medicines and technology available when needed, but did a great job of makeing this as non-invasive a birth as possible (our preference). We feel we got the best of all worlds--first class medical care in a modern hospital, with a caring, capable, patient-focused medical practitioner/caregiver who included us completely in the process. I don't think we've ever posted a review of a product, service or professional online before, but this is the exception. The whole team at Midwifery Care Associates is absolutely worth checking into. We can't recommend it highly enough! |
| A Father's Perspective, 9/18/08 |