Frequently Asked Questions

When should i schedule my first appointment with you? where do appointments happen?

Reach out to us as soon as you think you would like to work with us so that we can schedule a free phone consult and discuss our practice in more depth. The earlier you reach out, the better. If after that you decide that you'd like to move forward, we usually see people for their first visit at around 8-10 weeks of pregnancy. After that we see our clients once every 4 weeks until 28 weeks, then every 2 weeks until 36, and then every week until the baby comes. We will adjust that schedule as needed to fit you and your family's life, desires, and requests.

All visits take place in our Upper West Side office. We can offer some telemedicine visits as well.

If I work with CPM, do I also have to find a doctor to work with?

If you work with the midwives, you do not also need a doctor. In the state of New York, midwives are independent providers. We do not work under an obstetrician or require you to get tandem care with any other providers except for us. However, we do have excellent relationships with a number of Obstetricians/Gynecologists, and Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists (high risk Ob/Gyn), and if there is a complication during your pregnancy, we may discuss having you see one of them for consultation appointment(s). This way we are able to continue providing the pregnancy and birth care for higher risk clients while they get care for their high risk condition with the appropriate provider.

Where will i give birth? Do you attend home births?

All of our clients give birth at Mount Sinai West Hospital, which is on W 59th Street and Tenth Avenue.

We do not attend home births.

What happens if I need a cesarean birth?

In the case that it is decided before labor that a cesarean birth would be the safest way for your baby to be born, we will schedule you with a trusted Ob/Gyn that provides a "Gentle Cesarean." The Gentle C birth is done when there is no urgency and no need for baby to be brought directly to the pediatrician, which allows us to follow some more family-centered practices. For example, we use a special drape with a clear plastic window so that you can watch your baby's birth, we can do delayed cord clamping, and immediate skin-to-skin. If during labor a Cesarean birth would be safest, we work with the on-call Obstetrician to provide the safest, most efficient, and comfortable Cesarean birth. The CPM midwife will be with you in the operating room throughout, making sure that you are comfortable and that the baby comes to your side or to your chest as soon as it is safe to do so. Your partner or support person will be able to sit at your side for the birth.

Do you work with doulas?

Yes! We love doulas. In fact, we strongly encourage anyone having their first baby to consider hiring a doula. We do not have doulas on staff at CPM, so we leave the hiring process up to you. If you work with us we will share a list of doulas we've worked with before and we can help guide you in choosing someone. Of course, if you have someone already, that is wonderful too! It is not a requirement that we have worked with a doula before.

Do you work with non traditional family structures?

Absolutely! We often with work LGBTQ+ and queer families, single parents by choice, and polyamorous families. We also have many referrals for doctors, acupuncturists, doulas, Childbirth Education Classes, and other practitioners/birth workers who we trust to provide respectful, knowledgable care to all of our growing families.

After the Mount Sinai West Birthing Center has closed, how has your practice changed?

When the Birthing Center closed in January of 2019, we were truly sad to lose such a historic part of NYC birth culture. We thought long and hard about whether or not it would be smarter to move to another hospital, but in the end we decided to stay at Mount Sinai West because we have such excellent relationships with the Staff, Doctors, Nurses, and Administration. We are able to continue using the same protocols in the Labor & Delivery rooms as we did in the Birthing Center, such as Intermittent Monitoring, no IV unless medically necessary, moving about the room, and using hydrotherapy. There is a bathtub and shower in each L&D room, and we use them often. We truly feel supported in providing the best hospital-based midwifery care that we can at MSW.

What is your cesarean rate? Do you have other statistics for cpm?

For 2022, our unscheduled cesarean rate was 15%. Our scheduled cesarean rate (for reasons like breech, placenta previa, etc) was 2.5%.

Our induction rate was 20%, which included both medically indicated (69%) and elective (31%).