Pregnancy follow-up: comprehensive support at birth with a midwife

Global support at birth, instructions for use

Only one midwife throughout your pregnancy

The notion of comprehensive support at birth (AGN) is opposed to that of traditional support, characterized by the multiplicity of interlocutors: an obstetrician gynecologist or one – or even several – midwives during pregnancy, another for classes preparation for birth, a team sometimes unknown to childbirth, another after childbirth, etc. The AGN, on the contrary, is a single midwife (most of the time liberal) who follows us throughout our pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. The AGN was in a way “institutionalized” in 2004, when the midwives, until then “doubled” by the doctors, were authorized by law to ensure the first prenatal consultation as well as the visit of the doctor. eighth week postpartum. The two stages still missing in their possibilities of follow-up.

The number one asset of comprehensive support at birth: more personalized follow-up

Global support allows more personalized follow-up than the classic support method. Over the course of the meetings – which each last one or two hours, (we take our time!), We get to know each other well, midwife and mother-to-be. Apart from the strictly medical aspect, we feel put in confidence to express our possible questions, doubts, anxieties… We are also more comfortable to approach questions of a psychological or relational nature, with his spouse, his family … The midwife will adapt the birth preparation sessions (8 of which are reimbursed by Social Security, as in a classic follow-up) to these data.

Less medicalization with global support

Choosing the AGN implies being in a search for a more natural childbirth. Midwives who practice it do not a priori deliver deliveries in traditional labor rooms, but in structures with little or no medical care: physiological center, technical platform in a maternity hospital or at home. Of course, it is always possible to benefit from an epidural, even if the feeling of confidence conferred by the overall support by the midwife often allows us to do without it!

Read also: Global support with a midwife allowed me to allay my anxieties

A still very limited possibility

Please note: few midwives practice comprehensive support. It requires great availability and lack of satisfactory insurance (especially for those who perform home deliveries), the practice is considered unprofitable, even downright risky. Finally, if you have a risky pregnancy, you will also need to have a follow-up by a gynecologist, more able to follow pathological pregnancies.

Find out more, find a midwife practicing comprehensive support

National Association of Liberal Midwives (ANSFL)

Such. : 04 75 88 90 80

Order of Midwives