What Is A Midwife?
A Midwife is trained in providing care for healthy individuals during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Most midwives are trained to provide well-baby care for the first six weeks of life. Midwives believe that pregnancy and birth are normal and healthy life events. Decisions are made by a process called shared-decision making, which involves lots of information, education, and taking into account the person’s individual beliefs and values.
What Are Prenatal Visits Like With A Midwife?
Prenatal visits with a midwife typically last at least 45 minutes. During visits there is plenty of time to ask questions, talk about self-care and eating healthy food, and learn lots of information about childbirth, breastfeeding, and local resources. Partners and children are encouraged to participate.
What Are Some Reasons To Use A Midwife?
Midwifery care results in lower overall medical costs and improved health outcomes in healthy, low-risk populations (if you’re not sure whether you are in the low-risk category, we can help you figure it out). This includes:
High breastfeeding success rates
Low c-section rates (midwives have a cesarean rate of about 5% compared to Ohio’s average cesarean rate of 30%)
Low rates of preterm birth and low birth weight. That’s right. Midwives spend a lot of time listening to people’s stories and talking with people about stress reduction and wellness.
High rates of a normal vaginal delivery without the use of forceps, vacuum, or episiotomy
Am I A Good Candidate For Midwifery Care?
Home birth and midwifery care are for healthy pregnancy and birth. Pregnancy is a normal physiologic process and most pregnant people can have a healthy pregnancy without complications. Midwives use prenatal care to continually assess and evaluate risk status. Many risks can be lowered by good nutrition and support.
High-Risk Conditions That Are Not Appropriate For Midwifery Care:
Insulin-dependent diabetes
Severe preeclampsia
Chronic high blood pressure
Gestational diabetes requiring medication to control
Preterm birth
Heart conditions
Epilepsy
High order multiples
Having more than 1 cesarean section
What Happens If I Need To Go To The Hospital At Any Point Throughout My Pregnancy/Labor?
Following a healthy and low-risk pregnancy, birth is usually accomplished in the comfort of the home environment with the midwife and birth assistants in attendance. However, in the case of an emergency, It is recommended you select a nearby hospital in the rare event an OBGYN consultation or transfer of care becomes necessary.
Can I Give Birth In The Water?
Absolutely! We provide water birthing tubs for clients that would like to labor in water.
High Risk Services Not Offered For Home Or Birth Center Birth
Pitocin augmentation/induction
Vacuum or forceps
Cesarean section
Blood transfusion
Anesthesia-epidural or IV pain medications that can cause respiratory depression in the baby
Complications That Can Be Managed During Out-Of-Hospital Birth
Neonatal resuscitation
Management of hemorrhage
Repair of tears-lidocaine is used for pain control with stitches
Dehydration-IV fluids can be given if needed
What Is A Doula?
A doula is a trained and experienced companion who provides the mother and partner with continuous emotional support, comfort, and assistance in obtaining information before, during, and after childbirth. Doulas are trained in providing non-pharmaceutical pain relief through massage, acupressure, breathing and relaxation techniques, and position changes. Postpartum doulas provide care to a family with a newborn baby.
Studies show that those who have doula attended births are:
26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section
41% less likely to give birth by vacuum extraction or forceps
28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia
33% less likely to be dissatisfied with or negatively rate their birth experience
When mothers have a doula present, they report a less painful birth and delivery. Additionally, they have much higher breastfeeding success rates.
Sometimes couples going to the hospital aren’t aware Labor and Delivery nurses are busy with patient clinical care and therefore are often limited in their ability to provide physical or emotional support.
What Is A Monitrice?
A monitrice is a clinically trained birth professional who provides monitoring services in the home, for women who plan to labor at home but deliver in the hospital. The role of the monitrice is to ensure the process of labor moves along within safe parameters by checking maternal vital signs, hydration levels, and progress, upon request or at regular intervals. She also performs clinical monitoring of the baby by listening to and interpreting baby heart tones on the handheld doppler, through intermittent auscultation. She will assess well-being and progress and communicate with the family. If a health condition arises, the monitrice will communicate these issues to the family and assist them with the transition to the hospital.
Midwife, Doula, or Monitrice? How do I Decide?
If you’re not sure which option is best for you, we urge you to schedule a free virtual consultation with a certified member of our birthing team. We can give you the rundown of all of your options and give you some guidance on what is the best birthing plan for you! You can schedule through our website by clicking the following ‘link’
Do You Accept Medical Insurance? If So, What kind?
Midwifery care costs only a fraction of OB care and birth at a hospital. The cost for our services includes all of your care during pregnancy, labor, and birth, and six weeks of postpartum, birth kit, and optional birth pool. Each insurance plan is unique and therefore differs in reimbursement. We work with a professional insurance billing company to ensure your out-of-pocket costs are as low as possible. At present, we are in-network with most Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
We are currently unable to accept Medicaid (Caresource, Buckeye Health, Kentucky Medicaid, United Healthcare Community Plan) or Tricare at this time. However, we offer a limited amount of financial aid for Medicaid-eligible individuals who are invited to apply after their initial interview.
Are There Any Cost Saving Options?
We offer an early pay discount of $1000 to individuals who do not wish to bill their insurance and are able to complete payment of our services prior to their first prenatal appointment.
We encourage all expecting mothers to schedule an interview even if they think a home or birth center birth may be out of their reach!
Do You Allow For Service Cost Adjustments To Expecting Persons Transferring Care Or Onboarding Clients Further Along In Pregnancy?
There is, unfortunately, no ability to negotiate or lower the cost of our services other than utilizing our Early Pay Discount which offers you $1000 off of our total cost by paying for our birthing services in full prior to or at the time of your first appointment.
Though we do see a reason for your question, the care that is received will be the same care as those who onboard with us with a lower gestational week of pregnancy. Onboarding later in pregnancy requires our birthing team to cover all of the necessary steps to prepare for a client's birth in a smaller amount of time which can elevate the risk, if not done properly. To ensure we are giving you the proper care, time and safety precautions that you and your baby deserve, our birthing team will be doubling down on gathering all of the information which would typically be gathered with a longer stretch of time.
Knowing that the following may not apply to you directly, we do also want to ensure, as an ever growing practice, to avoid creating any sort of incentivization for any possible future clients who may be seeking to intentionally cut down on service cost by onboarding with the Cincinnati Birth Center (CBC) later in their pregnancy. Such an action could possibly, inadvertently, put an unborn baby’s health at risk.
What Is The Distance Your Services Extend?
The bulleted list below refers to distances, in miles, extending from the Cincinnati Birth Center (841 Lincoln Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45206). If you are outside of our service range, alternative birthing options may be available allowing you to still work with us! We can give you some guidance on what is the best birthing plan for you.
Kentucky - 40 miles maximum
Ohio - 60 miles maximum
Indiana - 60 miles maximum
You can schedule a free interview with our birthing team to discuss options through our website by clicking the following ‘link’.
Does Your Team Offer Services In Any Other States?
Currently, we offer birthing services in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. We can give you the rundown of all of your options and give you some guidance on what is the best birthing plan for you! You can schedule through our website by clicking the ‘link’
