Home Birth Midwives

While every birth is a little different, at a typical birth we wait for you to take your baby (either from our hands or from the bed or the water) and bring them onto your stomach or chest. Until the placenta is born we watch carefully for signs of placental separation and monitor your baby's adjustment to life outside the womb.

Once the placenta is born and any needed repair is done, and baby has latched on to your breast/chest, we leave the room so you can have some family time, staying close by with an ear out for your needs and checking on you periodically. When we return to the room, we help tie off and cut the cord, and hand baby to your partner, skin to skin, while we help you to the bathroom to pee and shower.

When you return to the bed, you will have a nutritious meal while we go over postpartum instructions with your loved ones and perform a thorough newborn assessment, including head-to-toe exam, reflexes, suck/oral exam, and routine newborn procedures such as weighing, measuring, vitamin K and erythromycin (if desired). Once birther and baby are stable and content, we clean up, do a load of laundry, and leave the family to take a nice long nap (if baby allows!). We return for postpartum checks frequently (6 times or more) over the next 6 weeks.

We bring everything you would expect to find in a free-standing birth center or a level 1 community hospital (except for an OR and a blood bank), including but not limited to:

• Monitoring equipment for you and your baby, including a doppler, blood pressure cuff and stethoscope, thermometer, and infant stethoscope.
• Supplies for the newborn exam and any newborn procedures that you choose, including a scale, measuring tape, erythromycin ointment, and vitamin K.
• Antihemorrhagic drugs to stop excessive postpartum bleeding.
• IV set-ups, IV fluids, antibiotics, and anti-nausea medications
• Resuscitation equipment for baby and birth parent: a bag and mask resuscitator and oxygen (all attendants are NRP-certified)..
• Suturing equipment for any repairs needed after birth, and lidocaine to numb for suturing.

Midwives are trained to recognize early signs of complications, to handle certain complications at home, and to know when a transport to the hospital may be necessary. One of the most common of the very uncommon complications we handle at home is excessive bleeding from the uterus immediately after the baby is born, and we carry the same medications used in hospitals to stop the bleeding. The second most common complication in a home birth is a baby who needs some help to take his or her first breaths. Every midwife at your birth is certified in neonatal resuscitation. Again, in this scenario, we follow the same standards as the hospital.

It is important to note that 96.4% of transfers from home birth are NON-emergent, and the very most common reason for transferring to the hospital is a very long labor in which the mother/birthing person and midwife gradually come to agree that it would be best to go to the hospital and “buy some technology”--usually in the form of an epidural and some pitocin--to allow the birther to rest and regain their energy for a safe delivery.

During your pregnancy you will order a registered M.A.M.A.S. birth kit which includes all the disposable supplies for your birth. Many of these supplies are meant to keep your house clean during the birth. While you have family bonding time with your new baby, we quietly tidy up, and we generally leave the house cleaner than when we arrived!

No. Midwives provide the same clinical components as doctors during prenatal care, such as listening to the baby and taking your blood pressure, plus much more.  In our longer visits, we get to know you and your health, and address all your questions. We have found that “parallel care,” or duplicative care, ends up with different providers telling you different things, which causes discomfort for you, the doctor, and the midwives.  Clients with Kaiser might need to visit there periodically for ultrasounds and routine labs, but most people will not need any care beyond the comprehensive prenatal care that M.A.M.A.S. provides, which includes care for many primary care ailments, if they pop up during pregnancy, such as UTIs, sinus infections, migraines, and other common health problems.  M.A.M.A.S. midwives are able to diagnose and write prescriptions for these and other problems if they arise.

M.A.M.A.S. midwives obtain lab samples for blood draws, urine tests, pap screening and infection swabs during regular appointments or in between if any concerns arise. There is no extra charge for drawing these labs and sending them to LabCorp or Quest for processing (the lab will bill your insurance for the actual testing).  We also provide referrals for  ultrasounds as needed or desired, and for consultations with other specialists, such as endocrinologists, nutritionists, massage therapists, cardiologists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and physical therapists, as needed. There are no tests available in obstetric care that we cannot provide for you or help you access.  Charges for those specialists will be billed to your insurance by them, and we will try to refer you to practitioners who are "in network" for your insurance when possible.

Our fee for complete midwifery care services is split into two parts:

$5,500 global fee includes prenatal, birth, postpartum and newborn care for the first 6 weeks, primary care during pregnancy and postpartum, and midwives who are on call for you at all times during your pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum. It also includes breastfeeding/chestfeeding support up to 6 weeks postpartum, (a considerable cost-saving if problems arise!).

$1,000 birth assistant fee covers the 2nd birth professional attending your birth, and is due at your 36-week supply check.

We offer discounts for early payment, return clients, and clients who qualify for medicaid. This fee is paid in increments throughout your pregnancy. In order to receive any discounts, the fee must be paid by 32 weeks, or the second visit, whichever comes last. (Note: our fee does not include your birth kit, labs or ultrasounds, or a birth tub, which will be billed by those that provide these services.)

After your birth, we will work with our billing company to get you reimbursed for as much of the fee as  your insurance will cover.  Since we pay the billing company to do this, you don't have to do any of the paperwork. And since we pay the biller according to how much they are able to get back for our clients, they are incentivizes to get you reimbursed for every penny allowable under your plan.

Often, PPO insurance companies will reimburse for midwifery services at the out-of-network or sometimes the in-network rate. We work with an insurance biller to help you get the maximum reimbursement allowed by your plan, so you don't have to do any of the paperwork. Generally, people pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed once the baby is born (insurance companies don’t pay for things that haven’t happened yet).

We are Tricare Authorized Providers but are not in-network with Tricare. For more information about reimbursement rates for Tricare you can search your plan at Tricare.mil.