Birth Wellness
Services
Learn about
Our Services
Prenatal Care & Education
At your first visit, we do a thorough history, make a plan for your care, and discuss how best to meet your needs. Prenatal care is provided at our office on a standard schedule. We meet monthly until 28 weeks, every other week until 36 weeks, and weekly thereafter.
We believe education is a cornerstone of midwifery care. Each mother receives Birth Social® A Complete Prenatal Guide, by Carolyn Reisman. This book is written specifically for parents planning an out-of-hospital birth. In this valuable 200-page prenatal guide, you will learn about pregnancy health, homebirth supplies, when to call the midwife, complications, newborn care, and much more. At your prenatal visit, you meet with the midwife for a checkup and then gather in a group with other parents due around the same time to discuss the topics in the Birth Social Guide.
Labor & Birth
Throughout the process of childbirth, we offer sensitive support and gentle encouragement while ensuring the safety and well-being of both you and your baby through careful monitoring.
During your labor, you are encouraged to eat, drink, walk, and change positions. We sometimes make suggestions designed to guide your labor and birth. We encourage the use of water, massage, movement, vocalization, and emotional support to help with labor management.
Laboring in water has many known benefits, the greatest being the promotion of relaxation and effective pain management. The weightlessness of the water lessons a mother’s body weight, allowing free movement and position changes. Buoyancy also promotes more effective uterine contractions and improved circulation, resulting in better oxygenation of the uterine muscles, less pain for the mother, and more oxygen for the baby.
Newborn & Postpartum
We monitor both mom and baby after the birth to ensure that mom is recovering well and that the baby’s vitals are stable. All of this is done without interruption of family time and bonding. After the mother has nursed and snuggled with her baby, we do the newborn exam on the bed next to her. We assure that all the vitals of the mother and baby are normal before they are released from care, which is about four hours after the birth.
Follow-up postpartum and newborn care is provided in your home and at our office through six weeks. We provide all the state-mandated newborn services, including Newborn Hearing, Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) Screening, Newborn Metabolic Screening, and erythromycin (erythromycin is optional). We also file your newborn’s birth certificate.