Enlightened Birth Midwifery Services

This seems to be the biggest question everyone has. Medical researchers and statisticians have studied the safety of homebirth for almost 35 years. It is thoroughly documented in studies conducted throughout the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands that homebirth is safe for well-screened, carefully attended women. Homebirths result in lower rates of surgical intervention, fewer complications in both mother and baby, and lower morbidity (birth injuries) and mortality (death) rates.

The health and welfare of American mothers and infants have improved greatly in this century. Many people believe that this is due to increased hospitalization for birth. But medical analysts report that the improvement came about through better nutrition, family planning, housing and public health measures, more advanced prenatal care, and the development of antibiotics. According to some statisticians, childbirth death rates would have improved even more during the past 50 years if childbirth had remained in the home.

Homebirth is, by definition, woman-centered birth. It takes place in the woman’s own territory, and she makes the important decisions about who will attend her, whose advice she will follow, in what positions she will labor, what interventions she will accept, what she will eat, and what she will wear. Pregnant women and their families choose to give birth at home for many reasons. There has been a small but significant increase in the number of homebirths in the past decade, though only about 2 percent of the nation’s births currently occur in the home.

Homebirth is considerably less expensive then delivering in the hospital because you do not have to pay for the cost of the hospital. My fee for midwifery service includes all prenatal care, labor and delivery, a 24 hour postpartum check, a five day postpartum check for the metabolic screening test (PKU) and an additional two-week postpartum. If you have stitches, a six-week postpartum check is also included. (The fee is for midwifery services only and does not cover the cost of your initial blood work, or other lab work.)



For more information about fees, please contact Enlightened Birth Midwifery Services online, via email, or by phone.

Your main responsibility is to have a clean place to birth. I will provide a list of supplies which you will need to obtain for your birth.

You can invite anyone you like to your homebirth. There will be people who will be anxious to attend when told that you are planning a home birth. Do not feel obligated towards such people unless your reason for having them is that you need their love and support. Birth is not a party time! Do not feel that you are being selfish with your birth experience as you need to direct all of your energy inward. Try to have there with you only your most positive, supportive friends or relatives. I will bring at least two other assistants with me. In general, children do beautifully at the actual birth, but have some difficulty coping with the labor, which makes them feel anxious. It is important that when children are involved that there is an adult whom they like and trust to supervise them who will answer their questions and be able to alleviate their fears.

Great care will be taken to keep the mess to a minimum. Plastic drop cloths or shower curtains are placed on the bed and floor around the birthing area. You are not required to clean up after yourself. Your midwife and her assistants will clean up everything.

I do not have any "formal" backup, but there are various doctors who are more sympathetic than others. No doctor will ever say they will back up a homebirth midwife. In the event of a hospital transport, I would call ahead and after explaining the circumstances, ask if we may transport. I like to use American Fork Hospital if at all possible. However, if it is a dire emergency, we will transport to the nearest hospital. Also, if it is your preference, you may choose to visit the doctor of your choice before your birth and ask him or her if they would accept you as a client if you needed to be transported. Otherwise, we go through the ER and take the doctor on call.