I am glad that after 4 hospital births I was brave enough to try a homebirth. Granted my husband was a soldier in iraq at the time, just home long enough it seems to leave me a little present he wasn’t going to be home in time to catch at delivery. With all the brave things he had done, and all the things I had researched it came down to the fact that I wasn’t brave enough to risk a hospital birth without him, as a crunchy parent, but I was brave enough to try a home birth as we lived only 10 minutes from the hospital and again, the research looked to be in my favor. Call it lucky, but baby was born healthy and we had no birth complications! A month later brave husband was home and got to hold his new baby! Of course this is a summer of all that happened. These are 4 things one needs to think about before considering homebirths in my experience of doing it twice in two different states.
1.What are the legalities of home birth midwives in your state?
There are three different kinds of midwives in the united states, CNM (Certified Nurse-Midwives) and CM (Certified Midwives) are trained in hospitals and tend to work in that setting or clinics. The third is CPM Certified Professional Midwives, are trained specially in the home setting for home births. Not every state though is CPM (Homebirth) friendly. Knowing your state laws are important before considering if you would like to have a homebirth! Even while CPMs might be legal in your state it might be near impossible for them to get licensed and insured to practice so it might be very hard to find one! For me in El Paso TX I had to actually travel an hour for appointments to see the midwives in New Mexico as there were no homebirth midwives in the area at the time.
2. Are there reputable midwives in your area?
Anyone that has done the research knows that for a healthy pregnancy that home births carry the same or even lesser risks of complications than hospitals. That doesn’t though mean that all Midwives are as great and professional and well trained as any other. When researching midwives find out what degrees they have, where they trained and for how long! Ask around in your community about them and don’t be shy about asking for references from them. Do contact those people and be sure to ask the questions that you might have concerns about. Did the midwives pick up or call back when parents had question? How long did it take for the midwife to get to the birthing mother. Does the midwife have backup and what did they think about that person? If they could have changed anything about the situation what would it have been? Asking the right questions is vital so make a list and change it as needed as you call around. Don’t skip this step!
3. Will your insurance cover any of the midwife costs associated with the homebirth?
My military insurance (tricare) would not cover any of the homebirth costs as we went with CPMs and they only covered CNM. While I have heard of some people battling Tricare and winning to be reimbursed for the costs that was not the case for us. We payed out over the months of the pregnancy for the midwife fee. We did go through a normal doctor though to get blood work covered and for one of the home birth pregnancies we had the ultra sound covered as well. Be aware that if something happens during birth you still generally have to pay the homebirth midwife fee and then the hospital fees as well, though at that point our insurance at least would have covered the hospital part. Only you can know what insurance you have so be sure to find out just what they cover!
4. Are you healthy enough for a home birth?
While I am just a Mom and not at all giving medical advice though I believe the great studies done showing the safety of home births I also think we have to be realistic. We have a rather sick nation. I myself do not have the best of health. To have a homebirth in Arizona I needed to have a doctor sign off on it. That was no small thing! Because my health is even worse now there is no way in the future if I ever got pregnant that I could risk a home birth. Thankfully we are thrilled with our family size and no future babies are planned. Sometimes though we plan and things change. If your not healthy enough for a home birth please don’t think that the birth will not be safe or healthy at a hospital or birthing center. It still can be! You can still find great midwives in hospital and clinic settings and if you need doctors there are great ones out there too. Home births are not a status symbol, they don’t mean your not Bad Ass if you can’t have one or choose not to! You know your situation best, do the most healthy thing you can!
