Yesterday marked my one year anniversary as a licensed midwife! It's funny how I can barely remember the chaos of last fall at this point. Was it really all that stressful? Oh wait, Louis says yes, yes it was.
Overall, I'm very happy with my accomplishments during my first year as a midwife. I attended two home births in Alameda county as primary midwife (one planned, one unplanned), a whole slew of home births around the Bay Area as an assistant midwife, dozens of births at Casa de Nacimiento in El Paso as a resident midwife, and a few hospital births as a labor assistant/doula. Some new midwives like to totally jump in and take on a lot of primary clients right away, but the combo of my experiences this past year felt just right for me.
In between births, prenatals, and postpartum visits, I was able to:
* Create an office space for myself at home (thanks to Louis for giving up space on his bookshelves for me)
* Take inventory of all my supplies such as books, instruments, medications, etc. and calculate their total value
* Set up my birth log book in which I recorded by hand (almost) every one of the hundreds of births I've ever attended
* Create and print letterhead, business cards, oversized postcards, and flyers for advertisement purposes
* Open a lab account with LabCorp
* File a birth certificate in Alameda county
* Fully stock and organize my birth gear into two manageable bags that permanently live in my trunk
* Establish a wholesale account with Pam Caldwell at HerbLore, a highly respected herbalist specializing in herbs for pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding
* Set up a Facebook page for Generations Midwifery Service
* Create a comprehensive set of forms needed in my practice - registration, consent forms, health history, prenatal record, newborn exam, birth certificate info, etc. (this was a huge project!)
* Establish the standards I now require of all future clients, for example - must have Kaiser insurance, must live in Alameda county, must be willing to receive a 20 week ultrasound, must pay a minimum fee for services, etc.
* Start a popular monthly support group for aspiring midwives
* Participate in peer review and established myself as a practicing midwife in the community
* Earn my first 5 continuing education units to be put towards the total number I need to renew my license in a couple years
* Experience a truly life-changing, spiritually-stimulating mentor relationship with the Casa midwives, whom I will love, appreciate, and deeply respect for the rest of my life
* Established a professional relationship with a local chiropractor who wants us to work closely together in the near future
Goodness, I could keep going. See? All in all, it was a pretty good year for me professionally. No complaints, no regrets. I do, however, have some definite goals in mind for next year. Realizing that the baby will require me to scale back a bit, my realistic goals for 2012 include:
* Designing a logo and professional web site
* Printing a banner for tabling purposes
* Developing more (or improving current) consent forms
* Purchasing at least one full set of birth and suture instruments
* Attending as many births as I can reasonably and healthily attend as an assistant midwife
* Continuing the aspiring midwives group
* Considering the possibility of becoming an academic preceptor
* Getting myself established and organized (securing childcare) enough to be able to work full-time from the very beginning of 2013.
One year and counting! I'm official :)
No comments:
Post a Comment