Imagine health care that is unrushed, friendly, and tailored to your individual needs. Imagine having plenty of time to ask questions and have thorough conversations about pregnancy, birth, or newborn topics of concern to you. Imagine respectful and evidence-based care that treats you as an intelligent, autonomous person who is fully capable of making informed decisions about you and your baby's well-being. Your experience of maternity health care matters because you and your baby matter!
Interview / Initial Consultation
The first step in the process of deciding if midwifery care and home birth is right for you is to have an informational meeting. This visit is a chance to meet the midwife, learn about midwifery care and home birth, and get all your questions answered. It is important that a pregnant woman attend this visit with her partner (or any other person she feels is important to this decision making process) as, in most cases, both parents are involved in making the decision about care provider and location of birth. This visit also provides the midwife an opportunity to make sure that prospective clients are appropriate candidates for midwifery care and home birth, as CPMs must only accept healthy women with low-risk pregnancies. It is common for women to interview more than one midwife. Informational meetings can be scheduled with Zoom or in-person at my office. Please contact me here.
Prenatal Care
Regular prenatal care begins when you choose your midwife and make the initial appointment. Visits are once a month until 32 weeks, then twice a month until the home visit at 37 weeks. Then the visits are weekly until you give birth. Standard laboratory blood work, ultrasounds, and other tests can be ordered or procured as needed.
Labor and Birth
The day has finally arrived! Your midwifery team will come to your home when you are entering active labor and stay until you and your family are snuggled comfortably in bed with your new baby! Throughout the labor process we offer as much support as you need. After the birth, your baby will be assessed with a thorough newborn exam, suturing of the perenium (if needed) will be done, and you and your baby will be helped with breastfeeding.
Postpartum Care
For the first month, your postpartum visits will be in your home. The first visit involves two newborn tests: the Newborn Metabolic Screening and the Critical Congenital Heart Disease screening both of which must occur after 24 hours to insure accurate results. If you need breastfeeding or other assistance before 24 hours, your midwife will come when needed and then follow up sometime after 24 hours to perform the tests. Regular postpartum visits after these initial contacts are sometime between postpartum days three to five, at one week, two weeks, one month, and six weeks. If at any point in your postpartum time you require more breastfeeding support or more frequent visits for any particular concerns, we will come see you as often as needed. Postpartum care is concluded by six weeks.
This is a very basic overview of midwifery care. There is so much more to share! Please make an appointment for an interview to explore this option and have a more in-depth conversation tailored to your specific questions and concerns.
Fees
When we meet for the free interview appointment, we have a thorough conversation about fees, payment plans, and financial policies. For most families, the fee for midwifery care and home birth are an out-of-pocket expense and families will need to plan ahead for the payment of these services. At this time, care provided by CPMs is not always covered by insurance companies, and I do not submit invoices directly to insurance companies. However, once payment for care is concluded, I can write a receipt that clients can submit to their companies to try to get reimbursed. Some insurance companies will reimburse clients at an out-of-network rate for some of the care, and some cost-sharing programs will cover the fee entirely. It is worth inquiring of your company what it will cover. It is also worth considering that for some plans, the deductible you would pay for a hospital birth is about the same, if not more, than the midwifery fee.