Services:
My goal is to offer attentive, informed and personalized care for every aspect of your maternal health in a home like environment. Included in this mother led midwifery care you have the option of a waterbirth, VBAC, breast feeding assistance, and sources of information for different needs.
Preconception counseling
I offer personalized counseling for couples wanting to prepare for pregnancy or for those wishing to improve their fertility through holistic and non-invasive means.
Prenatal care
Prenatal visits are scheduled for an hour, which allows a comfortable time for mothers and their families to ask questions, share concerns, discuss their needs, and for me to counsel and guide them in their informed choices. Through this nurturing course of prenatal care we will get to know each other and build trust.
Prenatal visits include but are not limited to: maternal monitoring of blood pressure, pulse, dipstick urinalysis, and lab work as needed in addition to nutritional and activity counseling. Fetal monitoring includes auscultation of fetal heart tones, palpation of fetal position, and fundal height measurements.
Labor and Birth Care
My care for you in labor begins when you feel you need me to be with you, not when you have achieved a predetermined contraction pattern. I believe a woman will know when she is truly “in labor”. I will then be as involved as you desire, still affording you a respectable space to experience your birth while meeting your unique emotional and physical needs.
The labor and delivery care will include loving, noninvasive monitoring of blood pressure, pulse, temperature, cervical dilation, nutrition and hydration, encouragement and guidance with positional changes if needed, and emotional support throughout.
The care of your unborn baby includes gentle, loving monitoring of fetal heart rate, fetal position, labor tolerance and birth progress.
I have a birth pool available for your use. I am comfortable with water birth and have attended many safe water births.
Postpartum Care
The immediate postpartum care of mother and newborn will be done in an unrushed and caring manner. There is rarely a need for your baby to be taken from you. Most immediate newborn care can be done while your baby is safe in your arms or right next to you on the bed.
Postpartum monitoring of the mother and newborn is continual to ensure ongoing wellness. In addition to the clinical monitoring of mother and newborn, I will make every effort to nourish the mother emotionally and physically. Mothers are encouraged to nurse their newborn, eat, and eventually get up to empty their bladder. I respect this special time and wholeheartedly promote bonding between the family and the newborn.
I will remain with you until you and baby are stable. Additional postpartum care continues for 6 weeks, at which time I offer well woman care and natural family planning information.