Questions to ask a home birth Midwife

What is your own personal criteria for choosing a midwife? I would like to precede this list of questions to ask a Home Birth midwife with question #1, which is really a question to yourself: Question #1 The most important questions, are going to be the Questions to Yourself. Because ultimately, as skilled, recommended and pleasant a midwife might be, they won't be the right midwife for you unless they meet your personal criteria. As an innately wise woman, you carrying with you the gift of motherly instinct and intuition to guard yourself and your little growing life. I urge you to consider the following: When you interview a home birth midwife, once the interview is complete, and you return home, allow yourself quiet, down time to reflect on the experience. Allow yourself to process how the meeting went. How did you feel as the midwife spoke? How did the things she said make you feel? Did she let you feel heard and not rushed? Did her personality help you to feel connected and instantly safe and supported? Take note of what feelings may rise from your instincts. Those feelings will always be 100% right. They will become LOUD during your pregnancy and birth. There is a difference, of course, between leaving the meeting with a midwife and realizing you have more questions for her, and feel unsettled until you follow up and clear up uncertainties. Not every first meeting will be perfectly complete. However, if you feel hesitant or unsure regarding your very first meeting, and if any negative feelings are present, as your pregnancy proceeds, take into consideration that those instinctual feelings you had the first time will become louder and more pronounced and ultimately, unavoidable. It is impossible to hush the roar of your maternal instincts without compromising your peace. I speak so profoundly to this matter because I have lived this reality with my own experiences. Alternately, if during the very first meeting with a midwife you felt connected, safe, supported, and you smiled, perhaps a tear welled up in your eye because you felt like you found 'home' with this person, those feelings will amplify as you g