"The place I delivered uses that exact rotation schedule among 6 midwives and it works great! I can't believe some birth centers try to enforce anything else. How inflexible!"

She offered to write about her positive experience with a rotating call midwife practice:

I have given birth twice, both at a birthing center with a multiple midwife practice. Though the births were at different birthing centers, both places used a rotating schedule for the midwifery staff. For each prenatal appointment, I met with a different midwife so that I became familiar with all of them. At the actual birth, there would be two midwives on call, and though I didn't know which ones it would be, I didn’t find that it mattered in the time of labor (assuming there was a midwife I really did not prefer). In my experience, as long as I felt the midwife was competent and attentive at my appointments, I wasn’t concerned with having one particular person attending my births. Both of my babies were delivered with all of my wishes being honored. I believe this method of rotation allows the mother-to-be to hear different perspectives about their maternal care while allowing the staff to get proper training and rest, and I think that’s necessary for a successful birthing experience.

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Mary Dresser, Mother of two

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