Support, Community + Care
PREGNANCY
During pregnancy, your visits will be at the Cedar House, our cozy clinic on 103-2456 Rosewall Crescent in Courtenay. Visits are 30-45 minutes in length; allowing plenty of time to discuss your pregnancy and any questions or concerns, as well as prepare you for your upcoming birth and baby. We value pregnancy and birth as a normal physiological life event while also offering the supports needed for when complications may arise.
We are excited for our new collaborative care practice with midwives and family doctors. Our vision is to eventually add allied health team members such as a nurse, physio, lactation consultants, and doulas to diversify the services available.
We are also really excited to provide the option of group care in pregnancy and postpartum. It’s fun to connect and build a sense of community. The classes will focus on education, learning through peer engagement, and a chance to get to know your team of providers. We hope individuals will feel connected and supported.
We will provide clinical care: offering assessments (like checking your blood pressure and monitoring the baby’s growth and well-being) as well as the routine testing (like blood tests and ultrasounds) that all pregnant families are offered in BC.
We can write prescriptions for commonly used medications in pregnancy, and can also provide you with information regarding natural treatments. Our family doctors can also assist you if you need a test or care for a complication or a condition unrelated to your pregnancy. We’ll work in partnership with you, in keeping with the principle of informed choice, which honours you as the primary decision maker(s) in your care. We’ll talk to you about the benefits, disadvantages, community standards and alternatives regarding each of your care options, and with our support, you’ll decide what’s right for you.
The opportunity to become engaged in your care in this way invites confidence, trust, and empowerment: all contribute to a strong foundation for you to build from during birth, postpartum, and early parenting.
Beginning in pregnancy, and throughout your care, a midwife or doctor from our team will always be available by pager 24/7 for urgent care.
BIRTH
Our role in your birth is to be a caring presence, offering continuous support and encouragement; and also managing the clinical progression of your labour by monitoring your and your baby’s well being. Between the our team, we have attended thousands of births, drawing on our clinical training and learning from the families we’ve served to provide care based on each client’s individual needs.
Most of our clients choose to birth at the Comox Valley Hospital, where you will be cared for by our team as well as the amazing maternity nurses who work there. We work really well together, and you can expect a high level of individualized care throughout your labour and birth. Whether you are interested in a non-medicated birth or using pain medications such as laughing gas or an epidural, we are here to support you to have a positive birthing experience. Our hospital is also in process of finalizing policies to allow for water birth in hospital, which is another wonderful way to have a baby.
We strongly believe in choice of birth place, and some of our clients may be interested in home birth. While most are familiar with the hospital as the default setting for birth, it’s worth knowing that both BC-specific and international research reveals that planned homebirth is as safe as hospital birth for those who are experiencing healthy, low risk, normal pregnancies and are cared for by a homebirth-trained attendant. During your pregnancy, we’ll help you choose your birth place by providing you with research-based information, addressing your questions or concerns and helping you assess where is the best location for you. Of note, we may have a more limited capacity to offer home birth so please speak to our care team if you are interested in this option.
Where you decide to have your baby is your choice. Regardless of where you choose to give birth, you will receive excellent, safe care from your maternity team.
If you birth at home, two providers from our team will attend your birth. If you birth in the hospital, a midwife or doctor and our skilled maternity nurses will provide your care.
Midwives and family doctors in the Comox Valley work collaboratively with obstetricians, nurses, paediatricians, anesthetists and lactation consultants, both in the hospital setting and in the community. Many of the potential concerns that can arise in pregnancy or birth can be managed by our team, however if an issue presents that is beyond our scope of practice, we will consult with our local obstetricians or paediatricians to ensure you and your baby have access to their expertise as required.
Having a baby is a powerfully life-changing experience. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have the opportunity to bring our skills, guidance, patience, reverence, and care to your birth.
POSTPARTUM
After your birth, you will see your care providers frequently so that we can support you through your transition to parenthood. We’ll see you in your home for the few visits or so, and if you are initially in the hospital, we will visit you there. We’ll monitor the health of you and your baby, provide breastfeeding support, discuss baby care, ensure that you are recovering physically and provide emotional support.
After the first week, visits usually happen back in the clinic and continue to about six weeks postpartum, when care is transferred to your regular family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Between visits, we provide 24/7 call coverage for urgent care or concerns.
We recognize the benefits of creating community and connection in the postpartum. It can be so nurturing to spend time with other mothers and parents who are going through similar experiences. As the saying goes, it truly does take a village to raise a child and we can all learn from each other! We will be offering a postpartum baby group where parents will have the opportunity to weigh their babies, have personal assessments, ask their midwife/doctor questions, meet other families and enjoy snacks and time together.