Sunny Gault
So you're thinking a bit outside for your birth outside of that proverbial box and you're researching midwives and doulas. Well, what exactly is the difference between the two? I'm Sunny with New Mommy Media and today I am joined by Cheryl Furer. She is a midwife. She is an educator, as well as the founder of Your Thriving Pregnancy. Cheryl, thanks so much for being with us today.

Cheryl Furer
Thanks for having me, Sunny.

Sunny Gault
So Cheryl, you're a midwife. So let's first start by you telling us what midwives do.

Cheryl Furer
Sure. midwives are care providers. So we are sometimes we are autonomous care providers, we may practice you know, be able to file birth certificates, we do some medical type of procedures, we can check for vital signs taking blood pressure, cervical exams, we could run blood test order ultrasounds. So we are a care provider. And we usually have several years of training, whether we go through a nursing program first. So that's a certified nurse-midwife. Or we may go through a direct-entry midwifery program, and that's a Certified Professional midwife. And then there's a few other routes to get to either one of those, but we'll just keep it simple in that route. And so for my education, I took four years of Certified Professional midwifery, I studied completely all about midwife, midwife, skills and tools and learned everything about midwifery during those four years of school. So again, coming out of that I, I am a care provider and able to provide care to pregnant women and people and their babies throughout the childbearing year.

Sunny Gault
And do midwives have hospital privileges? Or what happens? Let's say, a mom is planning, you know, some sort of home birth or something like that, and a transfer is needed? How does that work at that point?

Cheryl Furer
Some midwives do. So it really depends on a lot of factors, but one of the main factors is your state regulations. So every state in the United States and even in some other countries, I know a little bit about Canada's laws. So but in the United States, every single out of the 50 states all have their own rules and regulations about what advice can and can't do, and what type of midwife can and can't do those things. And so it gets a little complex for the everyday person. And I totally understand that. But what I would say is that, whoever you interview as a midwife to ask them about, what it looks like if we transfer so if you're planning a home birth, or even a birth center birth, what does it look like when we transfer? For example, the type of midwife I am in the state that I practice, what happens is that I transfer your care to the care providers at the hospital, and I become your doula or I become your support person at the hospital. And then after you have your baby, we resumed care as I become your primary care provider again. So it really can complement each other, especially when there's really good relationships and your community in your state between midwives and hospital providers, whether they're ob-gyn or hospital-based midwives. And like I said, we can just really compliment each other and in some states, it's, it can be a little more tension because of the legality around to it with free in those states.

Sunny Gault
Okay. All right. So we talked a little bit about midwifery. What about a doula? What is the difference between what a midwife does and a doula?

Cheryl Furer
Yeah, doulas are great. They provide emotional and mental support to work through birth. Usually, there's also postpartum doulas. And usually, you will meet that person during pregnancy at some point, they will come with you to whatever birth setting you choose. So whether that's home birth center or hospital, and they are usually contracted by you. So, for example, if you're going to a birth center with a practice of midwives, you would get the midwife that's on-call during your birthing time. But your doula would be that person that you interviewed and hired and chose doulas don't require certification. And certification doesn't necessarily make the right doula for you. Right. Because what you need during your birthing experience is going to be different than what the next person needs. And so um, They may or may not be certified. They may or may not have taken doula training I know of amazing doulas who started supporting their friends and family at birth. And then they decided they wanted to do that for other people too, and they are absolutely fabulous doulas and they may or may not have taken like a certification or a training. Usually doula certifications are weekend long, but there's lots of continuing education that doulas can take. I know some doula trainings are weekend, some are 10 weeks. But again, there's that difference of midwifery where it's like intense midwifery for several years, you're ending up with a degree or you're ending up with a possibly a certification, but it's, you're going towards the national registration of becoming a midwife. Okay. Yeah.

Sunny Gault
are most midwives also doulas? I think you mentioned that when it came to a hospital transfer in your state, you transferred care over and then you kind of became the doula the support? Do you find that that's typically what happens?

Cheryl Furer
I think so. Unless the midwife has admitting privileges at the hospital. So some nurse-midwives might have admitting privileges and then they would just continue being your midwife with the obstetrical staff or with the nursing staff at the hospital. But because of the type of midwife I am, what happens is that the hospital staff becomes your care providers and it has to almost I'm very good at compartmentalizing. So I almost have to say that it is separate because otherwise, of course, I'm going to want to continue support. Like, obviously, that's what I do. But what happens then is I just turned more on the focus on the emotional support during labor, rather than checking vital signs of progress and things like that. So

Sunny Gault
Got it. Okay. And can moms have a midwife and a doula for their birth?

Cheryl Furer
Oh, goodness, yes. We love that combination. And it's as a midwife, you know, I'm, I'm, it's one to one care, so I'm not caring for five people at the same time, I'm there just for the one person in labor, and, you know, their partner, their family. Um, but I'm also thinking about a lot of things around their safety, the baby safety, I'm thinking about their, you know, vital signs, you know, logistics, I have a lot of things going on in the background of my mind as I'm providing care, which, of course, most people don't see that because I'm just like, quietly taking notes or, you know, checking on on the wellness of mom and baby. But the doula is really there to support the mom and the partner or the birthing person and the partner. The doula is there to support them. Through every breath, every contraction, they're there to really keep an eye out, they have enough water, are they drinking enough? are they eating enough? You know, what's their energy level? Are they resting in between? You know, can I tell them to relax their shoulders, their jaw? And as a midwife, I love doing that. And I have a lot running in the background.

Sunny Gault
As you were saying that I was thinking I think we all need doulas just for our day-to-day lives. I think we need mommy doulas. I can see this extending throughout parenting. Yes, absolutely. We don't care for ourselves enough. And I think as moms I think we all need our own doulas. All right. Well, Cheryl, thank you so much for that information. That was great. Guys. If you want to check out Cheryl and her work, you can find her at yourthrivingpregnancy.com and then once you go there, be sure to hop on over to our website. It's newmommymedia.com. It's where real moms talk about real life.