Midwifery Care

Welcome to Suncoast Midwifery.

Suncoast Midwifery is the practice of Registered Midwife, Lehe Spiegelman. I am based in Gibsons, BC and I work alongside Jules Atkins, Registered Midwife, of Hello Baby! Midwifery who is based in Sechelt. Together we serve families on the Sunshine Coast including Langdale, Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Davis Bay, Sechelt, Halfmoon Bay and Pender Harbour.

Registered Midwives are part of the maternity team in BC.
Registered Midwives are licensed and regulated and our services are fully covered by the BC Medical Services plan. You can choose midwives as your primary health care providers for your entire pregnancy, labour and birth and for the first six weeks after your baby is born. Midwives order the same screens and tests in pregnancy as doctors and follow the same schedule for prenatal appointments. The schedule of visits can also be tailored to meet your needs.

By establishing our practices in two locations, Gibsons and Sechelt, we are able to serve more families who choose midwifery care. We also provide home-visits after your baby is born. Our visits are usually 30-45 minutes long so we have time to share information and answer your questions along the way. In this time of midwifery partnership, we are able to provide you with a midwife-on-call 24/7.

You can choose where to have your baby.
Midwives offer you the choice of having your baby in hospital or at home. Our local hospital is Sechelt Hospital. In some cases the best place for you to have your baby may be in a larger hospital on the Lower Mainland and we are able to coordinate care for you as needed. Midwives are trained to care for you in labour with the knowledge of both natural and pharmacological pain management options based on your choices.

This community has excellent resources for mothers, babies & families.
In addition to the excellent physicians, nurses, doulas, educators and allied healthcare professionals on the Sunshine Coast, there are community resources and programs to support healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. We are keen to help connect you with resources and referrals and understand that it takes a village to raise a child. Let us know if you have special needs we can address early.

After your baby is born:  you don’t need to leave home for a week or two!
Midwives  offer home-visits in the first 7-10 days after your baby is born so you don’t have to leave  home. We focus on making sure you and your baby are doing well, that your breastfeeding or feeding plan is working well, that your baby is gaining weight, and that you and your baby receive appropriate care if there are any problems, such as newborn jaundice or postpartum depression.

Spreading your wings as a new or experienced mother.
Midwifery care usually ends around 6 weeks after your baby is born but may continue longer in certain circumstances.  At the end of care midwives provide you and your family doctor with records of your care. We hope you stay in touch with us through Facebook and social media  and connect with other mothers and families in the community.

Our website and social media are designed to share resources and build relationships.
We have resources and links on our website for you to read and refer to throughout your pregnancy, birth and postpartum, www.suncoastmidwifery.com. We have created a Facebook page to support our local community of mothers, babies and families. Look for us as Suncoast Midwifery and like our page for interesting information, current news and events. We also have an Instagram account where we capture meaningful images along the way. Social Media is a great way to keep in touch after you have finished care with us.

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or would like to book an appointment to talk.  

Lehe Spiegelman, RM Msc.

At all times, a midwife is on call for you. The central line is: (604) 901-7806

The central number leads to a message that will tell you who is on call and how that midwife can be reached.

FOR NON-URGENT Calls
Leave us a message. We strive to return calls in 24-48 hours. Texting and emailing is not always reliable. Please let us know what the best way to reach you is.

SERIOUS Calls
Leave a message for the midwife on call between 9am & 9pm.

• Please respect that after-hours calls are welcome if they are for urgent concerns only. 

URGENT Calls
Anytime: if you have an urgent call, call the midwife on call.

• If you don’t get a response within fifteen minutes, call again.
• If you still don’t get a response within another fifteen minutes, please try the off-call midwife.
• If you have no response from any of us, call Sechelt Hospital Maternity, inform them of your situation and ask for their help: (604) 989-6248.

LABOUR Calls

Daytime (between 9am & 9pm):

• If you suspect you may be in labour, phone the midwife on call. A heads-up call can help us to arrange our day so that we will be available when you need us later.

Nighttime (between 9pm & 9am):

• If you know you are in active labour and/or need a midwife now, please page us urgently!
• If you do not need a midwife immediately, please wait until morning.  We appreciate our chances to sleep through the night, and having a perky midwife when labour gets hard may be just what you need.

Lehe Spiegelman: (604) 603-0477
Jules Atkins: (778) 808-2959

Urgent concerns to call your midwife about:

Vaginal Bleeding

• Spotting in pregnancy can be normal (especially after sex, vaginal exams of difficult bowel movements). Call us if you have any bleeding in pregnancy and note the time, amount and colour.  

A gush of fluid from your vagina, especially if you are not more than 37 weeks pregnant

• note the time, amount, colour and odour (if any);  also keep track of the baby’s movement  (has it increased or decreased?)

Severe nausea and vomiting

• especially if you can’t eat or drink anything and feel dehydrated

Signs of urinary tract infection

• having to pee all the time, a burning sensation when you pee, feeling like you can’t empty your bladder, pain above or behind your pubic bone, lower backache, fever or chills, and/or generally feeling unwell

Signs of infection

• fever of 101° F. or over, sweats/chills, diarrhea, etc.

Unusual vaginal discharge

• especially if it smells bad or is green or yellow

Abdominal pain

• intense, persistent, or unusual pain

No fetal movement for more than 6 hours or a noticeable decrease in baby’s activity

• if you notice a decrease, sit quietly for two hours and count the movements –  there should be at least SIX movements in two hours. Call us immediately if you do not count 6 movements in 2 hours.

Signs of pre-eclampsia or “toxemia”, which may include:

• a severe or persistent headache
• changes in your vision – blurring, double vision, spots, stars, etc.
• serious epigastric pain – pain just below your rib-cage, on either side or central
• muscular irritability, seizures

Signs of depression or anxiety

• especially if you are experiencing sudden and extreme mood changes, you are feeling very overwhelmed or unable to cope or you are having thoughts of harming yourself or your baby. We are here to help you get the support you need, anytime of day or night.

Or any other symptoms or conditions that are making you worried – it’s always better to get it checked out; don’t wait until the middle of the night!

Midwifery care perceives women as inherently healthy. Pregnancy is a state of health and childbirth is a normal, physiologic event that is a profound event in a woman’s life. Midwifery is holistic by nature, combining an understanding of the social, emotional, cultural, spiritual, psychological and physical aspects experienced by women during the childbearing cycle. Derived from both the arts and sciences, midwifery integrates knowledge that is based on research and experience. Midwifery promotes wellness in women, babies and families both autonomously and in collaboration with other health professions.

Midwifery care takes place in partnership with women and is provided in a manner that is flexible, empowering and supportive. Great importance is placed on the relationship with the pregnant woman who is recognized as the primary decision maker and shared decision making is promoted between the woman, her family (as defined by the woman) and her caregivers. In order to strengthen this process and to provide opportunities for informed choice, midwifery practice includes continuity of care.

Midwifery actively encourages informed choice throughout the childbearing cycle by providing complete, relevant, objective information to facilitate decision making. The practice of midwifery enables women to develop the understanding, skills and motivation necessary to take responsibility for and control of their own health.

Midwives respect the woman’s right to choose both her caregiver and place of birth in accordance with the Standards of Practice of the College of Midwives. All women, regardless of their socio-economic circumstances, have a right to accessible, comprehensive midwifery care.

Fundamental to midwifery care is the understanding that a woman’s caregivers respect and support her so that she may give birth safely with power and dignity.

As midwives, we recognize that building a relationship with women in our care is an important part of supporting their health and well being. At Suncoast, we ensure that our appointments offer enough time during your pregnancy so that we can build a relationship together and build trust for when you are in labour. Because Suncoast works alongside Hello Baby! Midwifery, we will ensure that you have met Jules Atkins, RM, during your prenatal care. The two practices offer call support to one another throughout the year.

Informed decision-making is an integral part of your care with midwives. We support a shared-care model where midwives and women work together to create decisions based on sharing information and understanding values in a respectful environment. We believe it is our job to provide you with all the current information about important health care decisions so that you can make a decision that is right for you and your family. We also use our expertise to support your decision-making process.

This is one of the main reasons why we have longer visits than the average health care provider. We send between 30-45 minutes during our visits so that we can learn about you and your family in addition to ensuring you and your baby’s health. We offer you resources, such as handouts, and dialogue to help you make decisions about your care in pregnancy, birth and postpartum. We believe, and the research shows us, that when you make decisions based on valid information in a supportive environment, ultimately you make better decisions and you feel more satisfied.

The decisions you will make throughout your maternity care include choices around screening tests, birth setting and conventional procedures. We follow our community standards of care and recognize that people come from all walks of life.

Registered Midwives in BC are trained and licensed to offer you a choice of birthplace – home or hospital. Making a decision about where you want to give birth is an important part of informed choice and the midwifery model of care. We can talk together about the best place for you to plan to have your baby, and we always carry our birth equipment with us. We are happy to help you plan a homebirth or a hospital birth at Sechelt Hospital.

As members of the larger community of maternity health care providers, midwives strive to share midwifery knowledge and participate in maternity care research. In certain cases, we work collaboratively with other health care providers such as obstetricians, pediatricians, physicians, nurses and others. As your primary care provider, we maintain our role while building our care team if the need arises. We are fortunate to work in a highly collaborative community with excellent resources nearby.

Routine Prenatal Care schedule:
We will see you throughout your pregnancy based on times when there is important information to be shared, such as about your growing baby, your changing body, emotional changes, screens & tests and health care options for you to decide on. Here are some of the topics we will go over with you – please add (or remove) topics based on what’s important to you.

4-8 weeks
Meet & greet; discuss your questions; talk about any cultural or spiritual beliefs that may be important to you and your family; discuss midwifery philosophy and scope of care; review your medical history; offer you a physical exam, pap, bloodwork and ultrasounds if needed; check in about first trimester; discuss options for genetic screening; talk about upcoming changes.

8-12 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment – check blood pressure, listen to fetal heart tones if 12+ weeks (baby’s heartbeat), measure the growth of the uterus externally; confirm plan if choosing genetic screening options; review any test results.

12-16 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; talk about physical and emotional changes; offer detailed fetal anatomy ultrasound scan (around 20 wks).

16-22 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; review any test and ultrasound results; consider community resources and prenatal education; talk about doulas.

22-28 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; talk about fetal movement awareness; discuss physical and emotional changes in the 3rd trimester; offer and review screening tests such as Gestational Diabetes and repeat iron tests; review diet and self care.

28-36 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; review any test results and offer Group B Strep testing; discuss plans for the birth; talk about physical and emotional changes; make sure supports in place for birth and postpartum.

36-42 weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; weekly visits to check in on you and your baby; discuss plans for the birth; discuss newborn procedures and screening tests;

42+ weeks
Reviews discussions from previous visit and check in; routine prenatal physical assessment; talk about community standards for care beyond term (37-42 weeks); discuss plans for the birth.