I'm feeling emotional and just need to vent to some ladies who will hopefully understand.

I just got off the phone with my mother and am close to tears (thank you, hormones). I'm nearly 23 weeks and have been in midwifery care since 18 weeks. I am absolutely loving the experience so far. I feel empowered, listened to, and well cared for. I have absolutely no qualms about my decision. We plan to have a hospital birth overseen by a team of midwives.

In my province, midwives are highly regulated primary care providers who receive a four-year degree in midwifery, including numerous clinical placements, before being able to practice.

My mother comes from a medical background and she just raked me over the coals for my decision. She kept asking, "But when are you going to see a doctor?" "You need to be in a physician's care." "How old is your midwife? That doesn't sound old enough." Etc. Note that I am considered low-risk and everything has been totally normal so far. If anything were to change, my midwife is bound (ethically and professionally) to transfer my care to an OB.

I finally had to stop the conversation and say, "I have made my decision. I have reviewed the research on the topic and I am confident in my choice. Please respect that." She stopped, begrudgingly, but I feel so hurt and disappointed that I can't really share information about my birth plans with my mother because of how judgmental she is being. I am incredibly grateful to have a husband, father and step-mother who are very much in favour of midwives for low-risk pregnancies, so that is great. But my mother is one of my closest friends and it really bothers me that (a) I need to defend my well-researched decision, (b) I won't be able to share my experiences with her without being judged, and (c) she seems to think that I have made this decision naively and without consideration of risks. I just feel really hurt.

Thanks for listening, bees