In the two years since I last posted, I have made some significant changes in my practice. The biggest change is that I have begun working collaboratively with Laura Gilbert, CNM and Lynn McDonald, CNM. It has been one of the best decisions of my life. Both of these ladies have practices that I have used as role models for my own practice. One of the things that I value about both of them is their willingness to turn clients away if they have reached their practice limit in a given month or if they feel like the client is a good fit with them.

I have a hard time saying no. I'm a people pleaser. So I'll take on clients that I have reservations about, telling myself that "it will be OK. It will work out in the end." One of the clients that I had the most reservations about, but that I took on nonetheless, left my practice because she was arrested and sent to federal prison for drug trafficking (!) I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, but I didn't say "no" to her. Lesson learned.

My official number of clients in a given month is 7, although I will go up to 10. I had a crazy month in February when I had 13 clients due, but I decided then and there that I won't put myself in that position again. Not only was it hard on my physically, but it was hard on my practice as well. In rushing around putting out fires, I neglected some business items that I still am attending to all these months later.

I value client care. I value keeping appointments on the day that they are scheduled. I also value spending time with clients and being attentive to their needs instead of rushing from one place to the next. I'm often behind schedule because of this. But the clients know that I will show up sometime on the appointed day, or I'll be there the next day.

I value client-led labor attendance. I ask clients to call me when they suspect they are beginning labor so that I can plan my day accordingly, and I ask them to call me to come when they want me there, especially for home births. I may be there for hours, or I may be there for minutes. If I need to borrow a couch for a rest, I do. It is the client's call, not mine. I do like to arrive more than mere minutes before the birth, though!

I tend to clients at the expense of my practice and my personal life. It's much easier to manage when I have a client load that I can handle, which in my experience is about 7. I have a couple of months coming up that are lighter, and I intend to savor those months.

It's been over a year again since I've posted on this blog. In fact, it has been so long that I forgot my password! I've been browsing a lot of different blogs lately, and decided that I really need to get back in the habit of posting on my own blog. There are several blogs that I read on a semi-regular basis, and I like to go back and catch up on what's going on with those folks, so.....just in case anyone reads my blog, maybe they'd like reading an update about me.

Practice is humming along quite nicely now. Usually I have about 4-5 births a month, although this July and August coming up are busier than usual, for whatever reason. I have a nice balance of home births to birth center births. I haven't crunched the actual numbers, but the balance is about 40:60 to 50:50. Just about right. About 80% Amish. I just really enjoy working with Amish clients. Probably part of it is that it is my heritage--my grandfather grew up Amish, and I grew up (and still am) Mennonite. But I also think that part of it is that they accept that life happens. You get married, you get pregnant, you have babies. Pregnancy is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is a gift from God, and as well as the discomfort, there is joy in being pregnant and welcoming a new life into the world.

Other than being as busy as I care to be with being a midwife, I am struggling with getting a daily routine in place so that my house doesn't fall to pieces when I have a busy stretch, and my husband and I don't starve because neither of us is motivated to cook good meals. I'm blessed to have a husband who is willing to help put food on the table if I've had an especially busy day or if I just plain don't have any ideas for what to cook.

We've lived in this house for about 16 years now, and it shows in the amount of clutter that I've allowed to accumulate, so that's another issue I'm struggling with. I want to give every room of my house a very deep cleaning and purge a lot of my "stuff." I'm a packrat by nature, so it's been difficult. My sister is a lot like me, and we've been taking turns helping each other go through our stuff. It is so much easier to release things when someone is there giving you encouragement. I've really been enjoying our purging sessions.

More later (how long, who knows?) :-)

It's been a long time since I posted anything, and much has happened since then. Isn't that always the case? My practice is now comfortably started up, although now and again I feel growing pains. I did about 60 births in 2006, although some of those were births of midwives that I was covering call for.
I thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing, although when I get a labor call at 3 a.m. I wonder just what I was so anxious to be a midwife for!

I've had a bit of a lull my practice. Only one client due per month in January, February, and March. In April I have 5 clients due, and from there on I have 3-5 due per month. I've decided that I'd like to do an average of 7 a month. That's do-able to me. I will be able to give the clients the attention that they're paying me to give them, without toooo many missed appointments due to being with a laboring mommy. And I'll be able to have a semblance of a life outside midwifery. That's important to me.

I was denied privileges on my birthday (October 11). I wrote a 2 page letter (single-spaced) about myself and why I should have birth center privileges, so the board reconsidered, and on October 19, my brother's birthday, I was granted privileges. So the first hurdle was jumped.

The client who wanted my services once I got privileges is my first client! This will be her third baby. Another woman who is pregnant with her first baby called me after seeing my ad in the People's Exchange, which is a free magazine that all the Amish around here read religiously. So now I have two whole clients of my own!! One due in January, one due in June. This afternoon I met another young woman and her husband to meet me and talk about whether they want to hire me. They will meet with two other midwives and make their decision....I have mixed feelings about this one: they are the son and daughter-in-law of the president of the birth center board!! If they do choose me, I'm not going to turn them down!

Well, crap!! That's all I can say right now. The (Amish) board of directors of the birth center denied me privileges--get this--because I work at Planned Parenthood! They aren't sure that that is in line with their philosophy. I thought that getting privileges was just a formality, that I would be a shoo-in. Not so. Of course, they don't know me at all. So now I'm working on a letter for the board members to read. The next board meeting is November 10. Maybe they'll reconsider then and grant me privileges. What a pain! If they don't, my practice will be solely home birth. My first potential client is already 5-1/2 months along, and would like a birth center birth. If I don't get privileges, I will have to let her know that she should seek care elsewhere.

What really bites is that this is the only times they've denied someone privileges that I know of. Several months ago they took away the privileges of another CNM after some questionable practices on her part. So does that put me in the same box as her? I sure don't feel like I belong there!

I am starting this blog to document the startup of my new business, Peaceful Beginnings Midwifery Service. And who else knows what will show up? Maybe some rants and raves, maybe some updates on cross stitching and other crafts that I do; time will tell. I've never done a blog before, so I'm anxious to know what this will look like....