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> and, as far as I know, it's always a she As I have learned a few months ago when our midwife came by daily the first 2 weeks after our baby was born (in Germ
by lqet 7y ago
> and, as far as I know, it's always a she
As I have learned a few months ago when our midwife came by daily the first 2 weeks after our baby was born (in Germany, healthcare insurance will pay for daily midwife visits the first 10 days after you are out of the hospital, and for additional 16 times in the first 6 weeks) there are exactly 4 male midwifes in Germany, which is roughly 0.017%.
I get it, however. Our midwife had 2 children of her own, and it is extremely comfortable to know that the midwife already went through all of that herself. There are some things that cannot be taught, and giving birth is definitely one of them.
> Here in the Netherlands, they tend to kick the mother out of hospital as soon as feasible after the birth (typically after one night, or even on the same day)
My wife stayed in the hospital for 4 nights (she was definitely not able to go home sooner) and it was a very pleasant experience. She basically stayed in her bed undisturbed with the baby and if she needed anything (including some time alone) the nurses where there. We were very pleasantly surprised as we both heard horror stories from our own parents who gave birth in the late 80ies (in Germany and Switzerland) when it was uncommon to put the baby in the same room as the mother. Apparently, breast feeding was often supervised in the hospital back then and the baby was weighted before and after to check the amount of milk it drank.
PS: We were extremely grateful that we had the midwife available 24/7 the first weeks. There is just so much going on, both with the child and the mother's body. We had many panic moments where we called our midwife, and she usually came by the same day or calmed us down via phone. However, I don't think a service like that is absolutely necessary if you have family support and if the child is healthy. As we later found out, almost everything we asked the midwife or were concerned about could've been answered by our own parents. In retrospect, we were absolutely clueless.