Midwifery care is comprehensive prenatal, birth, and postpartum services. Good prenatal care is the best way to prepare for a safe birth. Many complications of labor and birth can be ruled out through comprehensive prenatal care with a qualified midwife. Visits are at your home or mine, relaxed, and family is encouraged to participate. A birthing woman will have the safest birth in the place where she feels most comfortable… home, hospital or birth center. Hospital midwifery support includes the same schedule of prenatal and postpartum care, early labor support at the clients’ home, and midwifery advocacy in the hospital of your choice. I encourage women to explore what birthing option feels best for them and their family.

Prenatal visits include physical assessments of mother and baby, emotional support and counseling, nutritional and herbal recommendations, childbirth education, and preparations for birth and the postpartum period. Visits are monthly up to 5 months, every 3 weeks until the third trimester, twice a months until one month before the due date, then weekly until birth. Postpartum care begins at birth, continues through six weeks postpartum, and includes support through family changes, lactation counseling, birth control counseling including diaphragm and cervical cap fittings, and well-woman care. Well-woman includes Pap Smears, cultures and gentle pelvic exams that are recommended to be done yearly, for healthy women. Many women feel more comfortable seeing a midwife instead of a doctor for this type of exam, which is crucial to their lifelong pelvic health.