How the Midwives of New Jersey Limit Labor Interventions

The secret to our success at the Midwives of New Jersey is our respect for the normal, natural process of pregnancy and birth.  More times than not, we do not have to DO anything.  Our clients thrive in a supportive, positive environment and deliver their babies as they wish.

1. We encourage shared decision-making. The foundation of Midwifery is the acknowledgement that pregnant people can make good decisions for themselves given accurate, unbiased information.  The Midwives of New Jersey have their own standards of care which dictate which choices we can support.  The mutual acceptance of patient/provider boundaries creates satisfaction and healthy outcomes for all.
2. We reduce interventions in the physiologic process of birth by investing in a relationship with our clients. Our visits are a time of just getting to know about each other. Childbirth is a very intimate experience that proceeds much more normally when the people attending are known to the family.
3. We promote health and fitness in pregnancy and even preconceptionally. Diet, supplements and exercise are discussed in prenatal visits as they relate to achieving the birth that our client desires and the overall health of mother and baby.
4. We have specially tailored childbirth classes designed to inspire confidence.  Fear of the unknown leads to changes in the optimal hormonal milieu of labor needed for labor to proceed without intervention. Childbirth education prepares people for the many different but normal ways that labor and birth can happen. Delivering a baby without interventions is difficult but doable with preparation.
5. We encourage our clients to stay home in early labor. Interventions are more likely when women are at their birth site before labor is active.  We are readily available to speak with our clients in early labor to discuss any concerns and help them decide the right time to make their move.
6. The Midwives of NJ are committed to offering our clients choices.  Our clients have options like intermittent auscultation, water immersion and nitrous oxide which are all associated with labor progress and comfort with less need for interventions.
7. We believe that continuous labor support is the cornerstone of physiologic birth. Our Midwife Assistants accompany the Midwives to births to give our clients a fantastic doula team. When clients choose to hire a doula, we welcome their presence and assistance for our client’s best birth.
8. We encourage our clients to keep moving throughout labor.  From walking to showering to sitting to rocking to kneeling to laying to squatting, the Midwives of New Jersey clients are rarely found lying on their backs in bed.  Position changes offer pain relief and promote labor progress decreasing the need for pain medication and augmentation of labor with Pitocin.
9. The Midwives of New Jersey prefer to wait for their patients to have a strong urge to bear down before starting the second stage. When women are asked to push before they have a desire to bear down, the pushing time can be extended, exhausting requiring interventions like forceps and vacuum extraction.

We believe that if a family is fully prepared for their birth, trust us to have their best interests at heart, know that we are making decisions with them and not for them and advocating for their choices, they will be satisfied that any interventions employed were for their benefit.