Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward wrote:

Ericka,

For my first pregnancy I had a homebirth and was attended by a small
midwifery practice just like your first two. However, most of the
prenatal care was carried out by a large hospital as I only discovered
the midwives in my seventh month. Whether because I had the good
fortune to meet very lovely midwives or because prenatal care with them
from the seventh month onwards sufficed, I felt very much cared for and
trusted the midwives.

Now for my second pregnancy, I would like to follow the same model -
first seven months with the hospital, and the rest with the midwives.
The midwives were okay with it since we already know each other.

For me, this works better because I know my insurance will cover the
hospital portion, and the rest only at 75% after a pretty high
deductible.

My question is - am I losing out in some way by not conducting the
entire pregnancy through the midwives?

FWIW - I saw an OB for the first 20 weeks, however I had already seen
my midwife in my first pg which miscarried, so I knew her. (just one,
she had assistants but she wasn't part of a practice) I had assorted
testing and early u/s done since I m/c'd the first time. It was
reassuring to have that since I didn't know I m/c'd til 6 weeks after
the fetus had stopped developing and I'd have been a wreck until we had
a heartbeat. Also, given my age it was nice to see things developing
normally. However, now we've had a successful pg I'm less worried about
that.

In any case, I didn't officially see my midwife until ~ wk 24, tho I
talked to her each month. That was ok, but in some ways less than ideal
since she hadn't seen the whole progression of the pg. I kept her
updated, but that's not the same. Unfortunately it took til about week
36 to get my medical records to her. Next pg I will see my midwife only
from the start.