A Midwife is comprehensively trained to care for healthy women during pregnancy, and assist them in having active hospital births and home births.
She is trained to detect problems, both in pregnancy and in labour, in advance and refer timeously should the need arise. |
What is a Gynaecologist/Obstetrician?
The obstetrician/gynecologist is a Doctor / Surgeon, trained to manage abnormal and high risk pregnancies and deliveries. He/She will thus, routinely deliver all his clients using a hi-tech, high intervention approach as he is not experienced in allowing women to labour and birth actively. There is less likelihood of a low intervention birth because the hi tech approach is looking for problems. Our Doctors are amazing at what they do, and we need them for those occasions when things don't go as planned. We always have the full back up of a Gynaecologist for all our births. Cheryl's Gentle Births transfers approx 7.5% of our Moms. WHO considers that the ideal rate of cesarean section birth should be between 10% and 15%, so we are well within that recommendation. |
Why choose Cheryl as your Midwife?
- Hour long antenatal check-ups. Cheryl focuses on the physical AND emotional aspect of the expectant mother. “What affects the mind affects the body!”
- Experience: Cheryl has 22 years experience in Private Practice.
- Family focused approach. Dad is not the only one allowed or encouraged in the delivery room.
- Individualised care: birth plans are encouraged and adhered to as far as medically sound. Each pregnancy and labour is recognized as special and unique.
- Natural methods of intervention: Cheryl employs natural methods (mobility, gravity, and homeopathy) to stimulate a sluggish labour, start an overdue one and provide mothers with pain relief. Contrary to popular belief, she may also employ the use of narcotic drugs should the need arise, however they are not her first mode of action. All drugs carry some risk for the Mom and Baby.
- Continuous Care from your team: You will be cared for by a team whom you have got to know and trust well during your pregnancy and recognition of this as a huge life event. In a traditional “gynae” birth, when you go into labour, you get assigned whichever midwife is on duty in the labour ward that day. She monitors you until you are fully dilated and your Dr is called to deliver the baby.
- Natural instinctive birthing: Cheryl recognize that all labours are unique and tend to interfere less with the natural rhythm of labour. This means less risk to baby.
- Active Birth: Being allowed to remain upright and move around during labour means: 50% shorter labour, 50% less chance of a cesarean birth, 40% less chance of a forceps or vacuum deliver, 60% less chance of fatal distress.
- Gentle Birth: Babies can and do experience pain and trauma during birth. At Cheryl's Gentle Births, we take measures to ensure a gentler transition from womb to world. Dimmed lights, minimal noise, gentle handling, baby is born onto Mom's chest, the cord remains attached to allow for the baby to benefit from the maximum blood transfer from the placenta. (Check the information on delayed cord clamping)
- Postnatal Support: Home/hospital visits can be arranged to assist with breastfeeding as well as physical checks on Mom and baby for as long as is needed.
- Cost Effective: Midwife births are subsidized by most medical aids.
- Best chance of a Natural vaginal birth with all the benefits for Mom and baby, Cheryl's transfer to the gynae rate is 7.5% (Many of our local hospitals have a c section rate of 80% +)
“In today’s society, pregnancy is viewed as an illness and birth as a surgical procedure”
“Immortality lies not in the things you leave behind, but in the people your life has touched”.
“Immortality lies not in the things you leave behind, but in the people your life has touched”.