New to the area and pregnant (Minneapolis, St. Louis Park: insurance, transfer, live in)

[cls2005]

Hello! I'm new to Minneapolis and am extrememly early in my pregnancy, about 5 weeks. I'd love some advice on choosing a midwife and hospital for birth. I live in Uptown, and would especially like recommendations that might be within a 15 minute drive of here. (Just from a little browsing the place that has gotten my interest so far is Abbot Northwestern, and there is a midwife named Lois Cannon who practices there and out of a Health Partners clinic in St. Louis Park. Any advice on those two ideas would be much appreciated!)

Thanks so much.

[MNNative]

Have you checked with your insurance to see which hospitals they cover as well as which clinic they allow? Those things might help in your decision making, at least in narrowing down the many choices. I don't know much about midwives (I see an OB/GYN) so I'm sorry I can't help more. Here is a link I found though that might help your search: Locate a Midwife

Though I personally haven't delivered at Abbot Northwestern I have only heard good things from women who have.

Hope that helps and CONGRATS!

[cls2005]

I wanted to say thank you for the web resource and your passing on of what you've heard about delivering at Abbott. I'll settle on a person and a place soon!

[Thegonagle]

Abbott looks good to me (and is next door to Minneapolis Children's Hospital--a top-notch children's hospital), and Cedar-Riverside was good 10-15 years ago for some friends of mine. (Both have nice, comfortable-looking facilities.)

HCMC in downtown Minneapolis has a Nurse/Midwife unit, a standard (doctor-staffed) labor and delivery unit, and an OB/GYN unit all on the same floor. While the facilities and waiting rooms look ho-hum, if something were to go wrong for you or baby, you'd already be at one of the best (medically speaking) hospitals you could possibly be. (HCMC is one of the "go-to" hospitals that critical patients from other area hospitals are transferred to if the others can no longer help.)

If you end up near north Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Crystal, Brooklyn Center, etc., North Memorial in Robbinsdale is a top-notch hospital with very nice facilities, although I don't know anything about their pregnancy/birth facilities. (However, if something went wrong, similar to HCMC, you're already in one of the best possible hospitals in the area--AFAIK, it's another "go-to" hospital in the area.)

[babymom]

I would consider Hennepin County Medical Center. The Nurse Midwife Service is national known because the CNM group has their own unit. Like others said, it is right next to L&D in case of emergency. The Midwife group really promotes natural birth but offers a variety of options.