Client or Patient?

art by hilma af klint

CLIENT ~ PATIENT 

Maybe you have noticed that midwives often refer to the people they serve as “clients” and not as “patients.” 

Have you ever wondered why this might be? 

Well, this concept is rooted MANA’s Midwives Model of Care, which is described as “fundamentally different from contemporary obstetrics.”

What makes it so different is the holistic approach, addressing body, mind, spirit, social well-being… the complete person. The difference is the individualized education, counseling, prenatal care, and continuous hands-on assistance during labor, birth, and postpartum. The difference is the midwife’s goal to minimize technological intervention. The difference is the midwife’s specific training to support a normal process as it unfolds while simultaneously watching and identifying risk factors or circumstances in which someone requires obstetrical attention.

The Midwives Model of Care is WOMAN CENTERED. It is CLIENT CENTERED.

You, as a client, are hiring your midwife to assist you in a normal life event- that is pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. 

You are utilizing the services of a trained professional, but ultimately, YOU are the leader of the experience.

You call the shots through the processes of informed choice and shared decision making with your midwife.You trail-blaze the path for the kind of care you wish to receive. 

This is how reproductive healthcare is meant to be. When parents take back this power, something shifts in a major way…. something important.

Now, let’s take a step back to examine the term “patient” as an OB might refer to a mother throughout the childbearing year.

The word “patient” is defined as: a person receiving medical treatment.

And— yes, sometimes pregnant people receive medical treatment for complications.

But— we shouldn’t start with this assumption that pregnancy is a “condition to be treated.”

Synonyms for the word “patient” include “sick person” and “victim.”

The root of the word “patient” comes from the Latin word meaning “suffering.” 

Here’s the deal… You are not a sick person.

You are a vibrant, healthy mama who is taking charge of her experience by hiring a midwife— someone who will come alongside you and your family, who will serve you and your family, who respects your voice, who will keep a close eye for any “change in course” or complications that require another level of support or an extra helping hand, and in those cases... will continue to walk beside you as the journey continues on and blends into a more conventional medical experience.

When all stays “normal or physiologic” your midwife will honor you by fostering the process with compassionate, gentle, and slow approaches to clinical care.

She will offer you options in care as a foundation to the way she practices. Time will be allotted to discuss risks, benefits, alternatives, protocols to all important decisions. Your midwife will hear you. She will take the time to talk.

Your midwife will pause before performing clinical procedures and wait until you provide consent to proceed.

This is about taking healthcare providers off of a pedestal. This is about remembering that pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period are natural continuations of the human experience and not something to be poked and prodded and meddled in without purpose or reason.

This is about putting mamas and dads in the driver’s seat again, so that they can parent with confidence and trust that their provider has their best interest in mind— as opposed to an agenda tied up in rigid protocols, unnecessary interventions, timelines, and financial burdens.

As a younger generation midwife, I take this concept seriously as I stand up for the traditional beliefs and philosophy taught to me and passed down from midwives of old and as I join the ranks of people choosing to bridge the way between a modern obstetrical world and elective out-of-hospital birth.

The way we approach a young being as it grows within the womb is the beginning of that individual’s entire life experience.

The way we treat pregnant people is the beginning of their entire parenting experience.

We have a chance to profoundly impact the future.

Let’s be boldly compassionate.

Much love to you,