The fine print...

I feel like I owe my potential clients a sort of disclaimer, or a caveat emptor of sorts, before they really jump into care with me. Making a commitment to join together - whether for continued primary care or prenatal care - seems like kind of a big deal.  Maybe not quite as significant as, say, a marriage or civil union, but important none the less. The health care relationship needs to be built on a good foundation of trust, openness, and understanding from both partners, and I definitely don't want to lure patients in with a false idea of who I am as a provider (or a person).

Now, I don't quite think I need to explain to them that I am the queen of running five minutes late (no matter how I try, I can't quite to make it anywhere when I need to be there... I can leave fifteen minutes early, and still hit roadblock after roadblock), or that I crave naps more than anything else in the world. But I do want to pass on other tidbits; I want women to know where on I stand on their care what I have to offer them. I want the women I care for to know that I value them, I acknowledge their pain and their history, that I'm willing to work with them.

But.

I also want them to know - regardless of whether this is perceived as negative or positive - that in caring for them, I'm investing in them. (Side note: I'm not very financially literate - I can manage to sign the right forms with my work-related retirement and, um, usually get my taxes filed on time, those kinds of things, but stocks and bonds are waaaaay out of my sphere - yet even I recognize that when you invest in something, financially/emotionally/otherwise ... you want to see it grow and be well.) I want to see my patients be well; I want to see them improve their health, their families, their relationships. I won't prescribe narcotics or any medications that are known to be abusable to a client that is new to me, and I'm very, very slow prescribe them to anyone in general. I encourage, prod, preach, discuss, promote, celebrate exercise and meditation and the "right" diet and good sleep habits and physical therapy, massage, chiropractor, acupressure, so many other complementary therapies. I empathize with chronic disease, mental illness, family struggles, but also emphasize the importance of working to address problems from a multifaceted approach rather than simply a pharmaceutical one.

As a midwife caring for women during the prenatal and intrapartum period, I specifically want the expectant and new mothers I meet to know that I will be with them every step of the way.* I am honored to walk with them, step by step, as they journey through the path of creation, and ready to meet any obstacle along the way together. We will embrace the normal and address the rest, but together. I won't prescribe Vicodin for low back pain, I won't induce at 39 wks "just because" ... but I will be there.

*(I feel like, maybe, I should also warn many of my prenatal women that, at one point or another during labor and delivery, they will all likely hate me... does that seem fair??)

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Medicines are not meat to live by.  ~German Proverb