Thinking About Switching To a Home Birth From the Hospital? Things to Think About, From a Mom Who Has Done Both.
As concerns over COVID-19 surge, so has interest in home birth. The Washington Post even ran a story about on the topic, and home birth midwives all over the country (including Indiana) are reporting a huge increase in inquiries about their services.
I’m a mom who has had 3 home births and 2 hospital ones (and in an atypical fashion, they were in that order). I have loved all of my births and all of my providers. If you’re a mom considering home birth all of a sudden, here are some essential things to know:
1) You are not crazy. Home birth, with a competent provider (we’ll get to that in a bit), is safe; in fact, countries we consider advanced have considerably higher home birth rates than we do (the Netherlands, anyone?).
1a) But Make Sure You Are Not Driven By Fear ~ Making any birth decisions out of fear is a recipe for more fear and more anxiety. Take time to journal, talk to home birth providers, and families who have had home births so you can get a bigger picture.
2) Know That Not Every Woman Can Have a Home Birth ~ I absolutely encourage every woman who is interested in this to reach out to midwives and talk to them about birth. But professional midwives are passionate about safety and know that there are risk factors that make a home birth not wise. Be open and honest in any discussion with a midwife.
3) They Are Professionals, Do Not Ask Them For a Discount ~ Yes, I know it’s stressful to face so many uncertainties right now with Corona Virus. It’s the same for everyone, though. And these midwives did not wake up one morning and decide to deliver babies. They spent years studying, researching, working, and learning to achieve their credentials. They have important safety equipment they bring to each birth (ask them about what they bring! It’s impressive!). They work hard to stay informed; they come to your house at 3 a.m. if you are having a baby. They come to your house at 3 p.m. Most of them cannot just rely on a call shift and a colleague to be there. They have families to feed and bills to pay, just like you do. Yes, they care (passionately!), but to be the midwives their clients need, they cannot be expected to work for free.
Also, if you are a late transfer, they already have clients on their books that they have spent months building relationships with. They cannot just slip you into their calendar; proper midwifery care means getting to know your clients extremely well. It’s not fair to give a huge discount to someone who decided to do a home birth suddenly at 8 months and expect clients who planned and saved for home birth in their first trimester to carry the brunt of the business cost.
4) On these credentials (Indiana specific discussion): Indiana allows for home birth via Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) and direct entry midwives, once they’ve achieved Certified Professional Midwife status (CPMs). CNMs are registered nurses who then go on to study midwifery via the same route that produces nurses practitioners, for example. CPMs often study through college programs specifically related to midwifery instead of the nursing program and must receive certification through NARM (you can learn more about their requirements here). They are also required to have certification in adult & neonatal resuscitation and be able to have a collaborating agreement with a doctor.
5) What I loved about home birth: My own bed, my own comfy mattress, not having to be in the car during contractions, my baby not being exposed to another environment other than our home in their early immune-sensitive days, that someone came to me, and their capable confidence in my body’s ability to give birth (and that they knew when it stopped being safe).
What I loved about hospital birth (utilizing the CNMs at IU Arnett): still that same capable confidence in my body’s ability to give birth, the positive interactions between midwives & nurses/OBs for high-risk pregnancies, getting food delivered from the cafeteria (for real, tho!), and getting to sleep without being woken up by my other children. ;-) There are definitely advantages to both birth situations; take the time to investigate which is best for you!
Here are two excellent CPMs I know of in Indiana ~ please feel free to shoot me more!
* April Blake, Serene Midwifery