UT: Economy leading more women to midwives
The Deseret News reports…
The slumping economy is becoming a factor in where some Utah women decide to give birth.
Licensed home-based midwives say they’ve seen a slight increase in business in part because their service tends to be less expensive than giving birth in a hospital.
“The fact (that) people are having a lot of financial troubles is causing people to look for alternatives,” said Suzanne Smith, a midwife who said she is taking more calls from people who are uninsured or have high deductibles.
Consulting appointments are also up at BellaNatal, a one-room birth suite in Orem run by Smith.
At the Birth and Family Place, a birth center in Holladay, the number of women touring the center who say they’re attracted by the price has risen to about one-third, according to medical director Rebecca McInnis.
“I don’t think it’s been that high before,” McInnis said.
A hospital-based birth can cost about $8,300, including about $6,000 on average for the hospital charge, according to 2006 estimates by the state health department. Deliveries at home or at a birthing center can be substantially less expensive.
Still, midwives said, cost is rarely the only factor in deciding to give birth at home or at a center. It typically only makes sense for women with low-risk pregnancies and for those willing to forgo epidurals and Caesarean sections. Women have to weigh the risks and benefits of giving birth outside of a hospital, they said.
“You really should be where you feel safe, where you feel good,” Smith said. “Nobody’s going to go to the cheapest place when it comes to the life of their baby.”
Paula Williams of Provo said she wanted to give birth at home with her second child. She said she was dissatisfied with the hospital birth of her first child. Cost was also a factor in considering the birth of her second. Williams, who doesn’t have insurance, delivered her son in a bathtub at her parents’ house in November and was glad she did.
“It was a lot better experience. I got to do it my way,” she said. “I will be doing it again, not just because of the money.”
TX: Birthing center reaches out for help
From the Brownsville Herald:
WESLACO - Holy Family Birth Center has been helping women have babies in a low-stress environment for 25 years, but now the center needs help so it doesn’t have to close its doors.
The center was founded in 1983 by Sister Angela Murdaugh, along with Sisters Mary Thompson, Damien Francois and Ann Wojtowicz.
The original grant for the center was given by the Meadows Foundation, under the umbrella of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Brownsville.
The center grew to include six birthing suites, a clinic, a classroom, a chapel, medical storage rooms and housing for the staff, volunteers, students and visitors.
Nancy Sandrock, director of the center, is a certified nurse midwife.
She was asked to come to the center last year to keep it from closing because there had been no certified nurse midwives (registered nurses with extra training) for several months.
The donated buildings are located on land at 5819 N. FM 88 that belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville.
But, despite its name, Holy Family only receives moral support from the diocese; the Roman Catholic Church cannot afford to fund the project, she said.
Although Holy Family is faith-based, the nuns who founded it are now either dead or retired, Sandrock said.
Today there is a shortage of nuns, so there is a paid staff, in addition to volunteers who help women who come to the center and their families, she said.
Having a baby at Holy Family is a different experience than at a hospital, where expectant mothers may be afraid and uncomfortable in a cold, clinical setting, Sandrock said.
Teaching woman to be assertive and to realize they have choices about the birthing experience is one of the center’s goals, she said.
Unlike at most hospitals, they have a choice of having the baby in a warm water bath, which is a very natural experience, or in a bed if they prefer, she said.
The babies are not taken away from the mother at birth and kept in another room for six hours or more, as is done in some hospitals, she said. The baby stays with the mother, she said.
Mothers receive instruction in breast-feeding and care of their newborn and may be attended by a doula, which is a woman who attends to the mother all through the process, she said.
But everything costs money and that is in short supply for the center, Sandrock said.
“We may have to close,” she said. “We take people, regardless of how much money they make. … If you call around town, (other facilities) want $1,000 to walk in the door and who has $1,000 sitting around?”
But, even at Holy Family, low-income families are required to fill out paperwork to apply for Medicaid or CHIP reimbursement because there are many expenses, including staff, supplies, utility bills, equipment and repairs, Sandrock said.
CHIP is the state-run Childrens Health Insurance Program.
Some families may not be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP funding, “but they have to make the effort to apply,” Sandrock said.
Some doctors, hospitals or clinics encourage low-income women to go to Holy Family for pre-natal care, she said.
If the family is not eligible for a program, they will be put on a payment plan, based on what they can afford, Sandrock said.
Holy Family Birth Center does much more than just help women give birth, Sandrock said. Education about childbirth, prenatal care and infant care are all part of the program.
Volunteers and students nurses are trained at the center, she said.
If there are problems with the pregnancy, the mother and child can be taken to Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco, she said.
Dr. Elizabeth Krishnan worked hard to get hospital admitting privileges for the her, said Sandrock, who has a master’s degree in addition to being a registered nurse with training as a midwife.
In addition to money, the center could use donations of baby clothing, baby supplies, packaged baby food, building materials or even gift cards from Home Depot, she said.
Her husband James Sandrock uses his carpentry skills and interest in recycling to make repairs, often with reclaimed building materials, she said.
James and some of the nurses boarded up the buildings before Hurricane Dolly and he has been making repairs since the storm, she said. He also helps maintain the center’s computers.
KS: A rising birth place
From Hutchinson News:
YODER - In the middle of the night, when the clip-clop of horses’ hooves is heard turning into the driveway at 2913 E. Red Rock Road, it can only mean one thing: A baby will soon arrive in the world.
In this Amish community, the driveway leads to a gray brick building that blends in with the other homes on the edge of town.
A simple sign identifies the house as Yoder’s Birth and Women’s Health Center. It’s here, over the past four years, where 93 babies have been born in one of two rooms that look more like comfortable bed-and-breakfast retreats than hospital rooms, complete with private deep Jacuzzi baths for mothers who choose to soak during labor.
Nationally, the trend toward birthing centers and the use of midwives continues to grow.
According to the American Association of Birthing Centers, there were 125 birthing centers in 1984; that number grew to 178 by 2006.
Additionally, the American College of Nurse Midwifes reported that more than 10 percent of the more than 4 million U.S. births were attended by certified midwives.
In Kansas, the trend toward the use of midwives was recognized as early as 1997, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued a report on birthing trends.
The report indicated that from 1995 to 1998 doctors attended 2 percent fewer births, while midwives attended 1.3 percent more births.
At Yoder, babies come into the world with the smell of cake baking in the oven and the help of Lois Yoder and Angel Schmutz, both certified nurse-midwives.
The center is only one of three in Kansas; the others are in Kansas City and Topeka.
Ten Amish and Mennonite churches in Reno County dreamed the center into reality, and a board of directors from the churches oversees the facility. It was built with the help of a “frolic,” an Amish term for an all-volunteer, all-day gathering in which barns are raised or other big projects are completed.
One-third of the families served are Amish, two-thirds are from surrounding communities and some expectant mothers drive two hours to the center.
“They come because they want a more natural birth and a say in their health care,” Schmutz said. “We believe labor and pregnancy is a family matter. We provide the education and let them make decisions and support them in it.”
The service is not only for obstetrics, but also for well woman exams.
Only low-risk pregnancies, however, are accepted. Narcotics and IVs are available, but few request them, and every safety precaution is taken. “We are always watching and monitoring variations of normal,” Yoder said.
So far, they have detected problems early enough to transport a mother by car, either to the Lyons hospital, where the center has privileges to deliver the baby, or to Wichita.
The entire cost from prenatal care to birth is about $4,000, Schmutz said.
Maria Grace Yoder was one of the center’s most recent arrivals, coming from a different branch of the Yoder family than Lois. Maria was born Sept. 23, about 10 minutes after her parents, John and Renita Yoder, Arlington, arrived at the center.
“It’s not unusual to have quick deliveries here,” said Lois Yoder. While in labor, the midwives are in contact with the mother by phone, but sometimes most of the labor is done at home.
During prenatal visits, the mothers-to-be chart their own weight gain and are trained to check their urine for protein levels. Fathers are very involved, so evening office visits are scheduled to make it more convenient for them to attend.
John Yoder cut the umbilical cord at Maria’s birth, just as he did two years ago when their son, Jeremy, was born at the center. He declined, however, to catch his daughter as she entered the world.
“It happened so fast,” John Yoder said of the birth.
So fast the midwives had to delay their traditional cake baking, which when completed is given to each family that uses the center.”I appreciate the care they give. It’s professional. They really care. We aren’t rushed through, but are treated like a person. That’s important,” John Yoder said.
CALIFORNIA: Fewer OC Hospitals Are Allowing Midwife-Assisted Births
I Want my Midwife!
The list of OC hospitals that allow midwife-assisted births just got shorter—but moms-to-be and midwives aren’t taking it lying down
About a month from now—possibly during some still-black predawn hour, as it was with her first two children—Robin Parker’s water will break. Parker, her belly taut and engorged, will grab her bags, pack her two young sons into the car, and depart Mission Viejo with her husband to begin the hour-long ride north. Before she leaves, she will phone the person who’s been with her since the beginning of her pregnancy.
During her 50-mile trek, she’ll cross the Los Angeles County line; she’ll end at a birth center in Whittier.
When Parker arrives, B.J. Snell will likely be waiting for her. Snell is Parker’s primary prenatal-care provider and a certified nurse midwife. She will spend as many hours as it takes with Parker until the baby is born.
This wasn’t the Parker family’s original plan. They were going to drive about 10 miles west to Laguna Beach’s South Coast Medical Center, where Parker would give birth under Snell’s care. But since the June closure of that hospital’s maternity ward, the only facility in South County that granted midwives the privilege of delivering their patients’ babies, Parker and dozens of other women have had to either give up their midwives, change doctors or find places, like the birth center in Whittier, where midwives can deliver their babies.
While midwives have long been a topic of debate and controversy among medical professionals in the United States—especially when it comes to home births—midwife-assisted deliveries are increasingly seen as a mainstream choice for healthy women with low-risk pregnancies. Midwives have been proven, in research study after study, to have as good or better outcomes (for example, lower C-section rates, lower infant-mortality rates) than physicians working with the same patient population. Midwife-assisted hospital births are widely available in both Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
Visit the OC WEEKLY website for the full five page story by Daffodil J. Altan!
Of course I will offer the obvious reminder that several midwifery practices offer home birth services throughout Orange County. I am one of them!
IDAHO: Only Southeastern Birthing Center Opens in Rigby
From LocalNews8.com (video story posted on their website):
The very first birthing center in Southeastern Idaho will open its doors this Saturday in Rigby. Already women from as far away as Jackson Hole are booking the facility. Midwives at the center allow parents complete control over what kind of birth they want to have.
As soon as you walk into the Rigby Center you realize this isn’t just a facility where medical procedures take place, this is where miracles happen.
“They said we don’t shake hands we always hug in this room,” said Amy Hanson, recalling her first visit at the center. “They gave me a big hug. When we were driving away I literally got tears in my eyes, because I knew they were going to remember me.”
Four days ago Amy gave birth to a bouncing baby boy named Samuel, at the new center.
“It was a lot more peaceful,” said Amy’s husband, Daven. “Amy was much more at peace and I felt like she was supported in every way that she wasn’t the first time.”
Amy and Daven’s first son, Gabe, was born in a hospital but the couple found their desire to have a completely natural birth did not line up with protocol.
“Doctor’s are great at intervention and what to do when something goes wrong. They’re not great at having a totally natural birth,” said Amy. “That’s just not what happens in a hospital.”
To midwives non-intervention is what giving birth is all about. “We don’t have things that pop out of walls. We just don’t interfere in the natural process,” said the Hanson’s midwife, Michelle Bartlet.
To top it off the Hanson family saved thousands of dollars just because Samuel was born at the center. “The hospital was going to be around $11, 000,” said Amy. “The birthing center was $300, so the difference was huge.”
That is only facility fees. Amy and Daven estimate a total saving of approximately $9,000 or $10,000. “We are in no medical debt, we paid everything off,” said Amy.
After going through such a beautiful experience the couple said the money they saved was just an added bonus.
The Agape Center is the only birthing facility in Southeastern Idaho that meets the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative. The initiative was put together by National Birth Network whose mission is to promote a model for maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and drastically reduce costs.
The Birthing Center’s grand opening will be this Saturday…to find out more about the opening and the facility. Contact Michelle Bartlet at 208-681-6114.
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Podcast 1: Midwives
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Podcast 4: The Birth Kit
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