Choosing a practitioner to help you on your pregnancy until the date of your delivery is one of the most difficult decisions. They will be the one to educate you during your pregnancy period regarding the proper way of taking care of yourself as a pregnant woman and a responsible mother of the child you are bearing inside your womb.
Obstetrician (OB) and midwife are both responsible for a successful delivery. They are well trained individuals in this field and focused on labor and delivery. Somehow, they are different in their areas of practices, philosophies, and fundamentals.
Obstetrician is a person commonly called as a doctor in profession, passed series of board exams to become certified and able to engage in medicine practices. From the word obstetrics, it means a surgical sub-specialty when serious problem comes related to labor and delivery such as Cesarean. To become Midwife a person has had to undertake a three year nursing course and then completed a postgraduate qualification in midwifery. Some midwives often have the opportunities to proceed OB, and OB often have the opportunity to take specialize courses in Gynecology as a good preparation for their future careers.
Most of the OB encourages no pain medication and delivering your child in the hospital with full medical support. They will be recommending the use of drugs, too, to manage pain during labor. They are known to use medical interventions like vacuum, episiotomy, forceps, or cesarean during delivery. Most of the midwifes will do all possible things to avoid medical intervention. Midwifes will surely do their best to conduct a normal delivery and, when necessary, they may take the time to practice other way of pain management like breathing, meditations schemes, exercises, birth ball and water. On the process, a midwife instructs the pregnant woman the proper positions for a better delivery like rocking or squatting.
They both typically work in the hospital but most of the midwives are assigned in rural areas. They personally train the mothers what to do, what to eat and they usually have a personal touch in preparing a mother for a successful delivery. If a pregnant woman is in a high risk, the midwife will call an obstetrician. If the laboring mother experiences complications during the course of her labor, the OB will rush her into an operating room for a special treatment. Thus, the obstetrician mostly monitors the mother and child. The midwife in addition to labor and delivery will provide effective postnatal maternal and newborn care.
| Recap:
Obstetrician is by profession a doctor while Midwife is a nurse with specialized training on labor and delivery; midwifery is a 3 year nursing course plus postgraduate qualification in midwifery. Most of the OB encourages delivering baby in the hospital with full medical support whereas midwifes will do all possible things to avoid medical intervention. Midwife in addition to labor and delivery will provide effective postnatal maternal and newborn care whereas Obstetrician is involved only in labor and delivery. |
A midwife can be easily called by the people in the rural areas to assist the mother in her normal delivery. The professional fee of a midwife is cheaper than the obstetrician but one must know that decisions must not be based on the price alone. Nevertheless, both of them are after your child’s health and safety. Most of the mother chooses a midwife in the case of they can play the role of a caregiver. They can personally take care of the mother after the delivery. An OB’s time could be very complicated and can’t give personal care after birth. Furthermore, if you are in a situation which is really in need of high level medical attention due to preexisting diseases or conditions, pregnancy occurred conditions, you should contact and be taken care of by an OB.