Homebirth?

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have had inquiries from people about midwifery care and homebirth.  We realize this interest is coming from those who may be new to homebirth we wanted to address the basics and make the transition as easy as possible. 

What we do… 

Midwives?

Prenatal Care

Prenatal visits take place in your home or in your midwife’s office.  Visits are usually about an hour long.  Along with education, midwives spend time getting to know clients both emotionally and clinically so they can best personalize care. We perform testing for all prenatal lab work, including gestational diabetes screening, Free Cell DNA testing, and GBS testing. We are able to put in orders for ultrasounds at our local hospitals. 

Birth

We are on-call to attend your birth from 37-42 weeks. You may labor and birth in the water, or anywhere else you want to be. 

We carry neonatal resuscitation equipment, antihemorrhagic medication, suture supplies, and IV catheters and solution. The transfer rate is about a 20% often for non-emergent cases when there is a need for pain relief not available at our setting, and this is mostly with nulliparous people.  

There has been some concern about hospitals limiting the number of support people present in the labor room.  Since we are low volume/low-risk practices, we are comfortable accommodating a larger support group at births including your doula, any family, and your partner. 

These Are My Hours is a documentary that gives an idea of what a birth looks like out of the hospital setting

Postpartum Care

We come to your home to visit and care for you and baby in the postpartum period.  The schedule varies slightly between individual practices, but your midwife will generally come for visits on days 1, 3, 5, at 2-weeks, and then at 6-weeks.  These visits include in-depth lactation support, well-baby assessment, and all clinical care for the birthing person.  

Financial?

Cost and Insurance 
Homebirth midwives typically charge between $5,000 and $8,000.  Most midwives are not able to offer discounts for clients coming “late-to-care”, but often accept payment plans and offer sliding scale. You may also be able to pay for services through your HSA. Many of us work with medical billers so you can be reimbursed at the out-of-network rate (if you have a PPO).  To check what the out-of-network rate is with your insurance, you can input your information here.  There is a $40 fee.  Most of our clients end up getting some type of return from their insurance and comment the overall cost to be similar to that of what they would have paid at the hospital with their deductible.

Planned homebirth attended by midwives proves to be just as safe as hospital births. There has been shown to be no difference in serious adverse neonatal outcomes and fewer intrapartum interventions when compared to hospital birth.  

Below are some studies addressing these findings:

-https://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/5/E80

-https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jmwh.12172

-https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/birthplace

Aside from Nitrous Oxide, homebirth midwives have everything that a free-standing birth center has, often with a lower transfer rate and no commute in labor. 

Please feel free to visit our individual sites and contact us with any questions.

Stay Healthy, 
-The SF Homebirth Collective