Midwives all over the country attend births in birth centers and in homes. There is absolutely no difference in the quality of care that you will receive or the equipment and resources available to the midwife.
First of all, the midwives are the same. Many midwives attend births in homes as well as in freestanding birth centers. The midwife’s skills do not change between the two locations. All the midwife’s extensive training, experience, and knowledge about labor and birth stays with her no matter where she is.
Next, the equipment is the same. Midwives have all the same emergency equipment and medications at their disposal whether they are in a home of a birth center. At a birth center it is hidden away in drawers and cabinets and quickly gets set out for birth when a laboring mother is on her way in. With a home birth, it is all meticulously organized in containers and suitcases and is quickly set up in any room in the house when the midwife arrives.
Finally the location. Some people worry that the distance from the hospital is a factor to worry about. Research shows that it is not. Women who give birth at home in rural areas located farther from a hospital have just as good of outcomes as women giving birth at home or in birth centers in urban areas close to emergency services and hospitals. This is because midwives facilitate normalcy and monitor mothers and babies closely in order to detect and remedy emerging complications. In the event that a developing complication cannot be resolved at home or in the birth center, midwives facilitate timely transfer to a hospital for medical interventions in order to have healthy outcomes for the mother and the baby.
So how do I decide whether to have a home birth or a birth center birth? Stay tuned for our next blog post about choosing between home birth and birth center birth. OR give me a call and I would be happy to discuss the best option for you.
La Luz Midwifery attends home births throughout the Treasure Valley, Idaho including Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Kuna, Eagle, Emmett and the surrounding areas. Please call today for your free consultation to find out if midwifery care is a good fit for you!
Listen up! If you are having a baby, read this: TAKE A CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION CLASS! If you do nothing else to prepare for birth you should still do this. I have seen over and over again how much better people who take childbirth education classes are able to cope with labor and this study shows that.
80.5% of those who attended childbirth education classes had a vaginal delivery versus just 58.5% or those who didn’t attend classes. Those who attended classes also had a lower rate of vacuum extraction: just 7.5% vs 22.6% of those who did not take classes. That is a HUGE difference!
Need recommendations for great childbirth education classes? Just talk to me! There are LOTS of great options in the Treasure Valley. You will definitely be able to find one that fits in your schedule, suits your preferences, and is interesting and fun!
La Luz Midwifery attends home births throughout the Treasure Valley, ID including Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Kuna, Eagle, Emmett and the surrounding areas. Please call today for your free consultation to find out if midwifery care is a good fit for you!
One of the primary concerns that families express when they are searching for a maternity care provider is how much it will cost. Many families have the perception that their health insurance will cover the entire cost. In most cases this is far from the truth. It is important to contact your health insurance company to find out exactly what they do and do not cover and what is covered before your deductible and what is covered after your deductible.
For most hospital births, there is no way to get an accurate estimate of what you will end up paying. You may get surprise bills for things that you never expected. ChildbirthConnection reports the average out of pocket childbirth costs for families WITH health insurance was $3,400 in 2013. This is the average amount that families ended up paying after their insurance covered everything that they were obligated to cover. This estimate is from six years ago and costs have risen since then. Also, this is an average; some families paid less and some paid more. Read this article to learn more about the enormous expense that some families incur giving birth in America.
La Luz Midwifery LLC offers transparent pricing. The all-inclusive fee is $3,500. This covers all of your prenatal care, you delivery, and your postpartum care and newborn care. A few items are not included in this fee (labs, ultrasounds, medications) and these will be discussed with you during your consultation so that you know how much to expect to pay for these items. Regardless of whether or not you have health insurance, or whether you have great insurance coverage or not so great coverage, home birth with a midwife is almost always a less expensive option than having a baby in a hospital (remember the average out of pocket costs WITH insurance were $3,400!).
Midwifery care has excellent outcomes. Mothers, babies, and families are happy with their care. You have the peace of mind of knowing that you can call your midwife at any time if you have questions or concerns and that she can come to your home to check on you if needed rather than sending you to the hospital to incur yet another bill. Midwives educate mothers on how they can take care of themselves to have the healthiest pregnancy and birth possible to avoid stressful, dangerous, and costly complications. Midwifery care gives you the best start to parenthood possible. Midwives are worth paying for.
If you are interested in finding out what La Luz Midwifery LLC can do for you, call today for a free consultation! La Luz Midwifery LLC attends births in Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and the surrounding Treasure Valley.
Do you have health insurance? La Luz Midwifery LLC is happy to bill your insurance. Insurance benefits vary widely between plans so please call for more details.
I just got back from volunteering as a midwife at MamaBaby Haiti. MamaBaby Haiti provides care free of charge to hundred of women every year who may not otherwise have care. I had the opportunity to learn from some amazing Haitian midwives and to assist them in providing care to their community. I will share about the amazing work that they are doing in the next several blog posts.
Every Monday, the MamaBaby Haiti clinic accepts 40 new clients. Yes, FORTY. Women line up at the wee hours of the morning to be one of those forty women. In some cases, husbands or family will arrive at the wee hours of the morning to claim a spot for their wives. The care that MamaBaby provides is free of charge except that the women have to pay 50 Goude (about 75 cents) for their prenatal card. The midwives decided to do this so that the women would take responsibility for their card and their care.
The Monday I was there there were 47 women in line. Some of the women had walked up to 5 hours to get to the clinic. They come at all stages of pregnancy, newly pregnant to due any day. After some negotiating, the midwives agree to accept all 47 women because they had volunteers to help them get through everyone.
How, you may ask, do they complete forty initial prenatal visits in one day. It is a bit of an assembly line, but everybody gets the care they need. First all the women sit in the waiting room while one of the midwives provides education. Education about washing hands, education about warning signs of when to see the midwife, education about breastfeeding, nutrition, avoiding STIs, etc. Every prenatal day begins at 8 in the morning with education for everyone. If the women arrive after 8, they will not be seen that day because they do not want them to miss the education part. All teaching is verbal since many of the women did not have the opportunity to complete school. Even better, some of it is in song. There is a song for washing hands and a song for warning signs that all the women know.
After education, all of the women line up for pregnancy tests. Then they all receive HIV and syphilis tests. Haiti has an HIV infection rate of 2-3% and about as many women test positive of syphilis. Women who test positive receive treatment at another clinic but continue to receive their prenatal care at MamaBaby Haiti. Receiving treatment for HIV dramatically reduces the incidence of passing it on to the baby during birth and improves the woman’s health. Syphilis can have devastating effects on an unborn baby can be cured with a single dose of antibiotics. By testing everyone, there are so many improved outcomes. All the women have repeat testing every three months during their pregnancy.
Then they receive a Tetanus Toxoid vaccination. Tetanus is responsible for about 15% of neonatal deaths and vaccination along with clean cord care after birth can help prevent these.
After testing, everyone gets a blood pressure, pulse, height and weight taken. Then they sit with the office manager to fill in their personal information. The office manager asks all the questions and fills in the forms since some of the women cannot read or write. Name, phone number, town, partner’s name, last menstrual period, previous births, etc.
Then they are called into the prenatal room where they visit with a midwife. There are five beds separated by curtains in one small room where they do prenatals. The midwife reviews all of her information for normalcy, answers questions, listens to fetal heart tones, measures her belly, checks her eyes for anemia, gives her prenatal vitamins and iron supplements. Women also receive treatment for hookworms, which can cause anemia, once during pregnancy. The midwife gives the woman a lab slip in order to get more lab tests done at a lab. Standard lab tests include anemia, sickle cell disease, and STIs. She will bring the results back at her next visit. The midwife tells the woman when to come back for her next visit. The midwife records everything in the clinic’s charts and also records it on a green card that the woman keeps with her.
They do this all day until all the women have had their prenatal appointments. While all of this is happening, there may be one or two births going on in the birth room and there may be women recovering from giving birth in the postpartum room.
Every Monday is hot, crowded, chaotic, and noisy but every Monday is a beginning of a healthier pregnancy and birth for many women and babies.
Wondering if having a home birth with a midwife is safe? The answer is an overwhelming YES! Check out this study from Canada to find out more…
This study compared low-risk women giving birth at home attended by midwives with low-risk women giving birth at a hospital attended by the SAME midwives and also with low-risk women giving birth in the same hospitals attended by physicians. Guess what? The women who planned to give birth at home with midwives had the lowest rates of interventions and complications!
Women with a planned home birth with a midwife had the lowest rates of obstetric interventions including electronic fetal monitoring, vacuum or forceps delivery, cesarean delivery, episiotomy, or augmentation of labor and lower rates of adverse maternal outcomes including hemorrhage and third or fourth degree tears. Newborns were less likely to require resuscitation at birth, have birth trauma, need oxygen after 24 hours, or have meconium aspiration all while the perinatal death rate was comparable for all three groups.
Click the link below to read the study for yourself:
Blog coming soon! I am so excited to keep you up to date on the latest issues in pregnancy, childbirth, and midwifery. Check back soon for my first blog post!
