Care for Clients
Midwives care for healthy low-risk clients from the time that they become pregnant until 6 weeks after their birth. Our appointments are usually 30 to 45 minutes long to give you time to get to know your midwives, to learn about your choices and ask questions. Prenatal visits are once a month for the first 28 weeks, twice a month until 36 weeks and then once a week until your baby is born.
The purpose of your first visit is to provide you with information on midwifery and help you to decide if you prefer a midwife, family doctor or obstetrician to care for you during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. We will provide information on how midwives work in Ontario and our philosophies around providing informed choice, choice of birth place and ‘continuity of care’. We will discuss our systems for providing on-call care, the use of the pager system and genetic screening.
During prenatal visits, you will meet with your coordinating midwife, your 2nd midwife or the other midwives on your team. Meeting the midwives assigned to you in pregnancy will allow them to get to know you and learn about your individual preferences. We will monitor you and your baby’s health, growth and check-in with your physical, social and emotional well being at each visit. We provide information on screening tests that are available for you or your baby, which may include blood-work, genetic screening and/or ultrasound. We can counsel you on nutrition and exercise, discuss changes in your body and the many other aspects of your pregnancy. We will help you to prepare for the upcoming birth of your baby and after birth when you are learning how to be a parent.
Midwives at TMC provide choices in birth place including home, Toronto Birth Centre or Michael Garron Hospital. We also hold prenatal classes in the clinic and information sessions on out-of-hospital birthing options. We have numerous community resources and a lending library of books on pregnancy, birth and parenting available for our clients. We are happy to meet with your partner(s), family and support people and answer any questions about midwives, pregnancy, birth or postpartum that you may have.