HB comfusion

[Hels_Bells]

I really want a HB but don't know if my insurance will cover it and can't get ahold of the person I have been told to ask. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out alternatives and such. Really I am just confused about everything.

I want a natural birth even if I can't have a HB. I don't want a bunch of Dr's and nurses all over me. Is there any way this will happen in a hospital? Do the midwives at hospitals every perform homebirths, or only the ones in birthing clinics?

Really, I am very confused about midwives in general. And here I thought I knew everything before I was pregnant. Come to find out I know nothing.

 

[Samantha675]

For me, I have been paying my Independent MW for her services, a birth with her cost $2900 (that includes all prenatal care, the birth and 6 weeks post). Once my LO is born I will then claim her fees back on my insurance. This is what we did with my son, and my insurance covered 80% after a $500 deductible.

Most MW do not work out of a hospital that I know of. It has been a real fight in Austin to get MWs back into hospitals.

So there are homebirth MWs, who only do births at home. Then you have birthing centers with MWs, and they typically only deliver at the birthing center.


MWery care is just different than using an OB. I spend about an hour with my MW at each and every visit. She of course checks all the physical things like BP and such, but she also wants to know how I am feeling mentally and emotionally. How my son and husband are doing (they attend visits with me) I feel like I have a relationship with my MW, way more so than I would ever have had with an OB. I also have access to ALL they same tests, should I desire them, that an OB would offer. IF at any point my MW is worried about my or my baby's health, she would have me transfer care to an OB. Same goes for when I am in labor. At any point if either of us are worried, we transfer to the hospital.

 

[Hels_Bells]

Thanks for the reply! I just found out that my insurance only covers midwives at one specific hospital (my husband is in the Navy, so we have tricare). They don't cover home births at all.

I've been calling around and the place I would like to work with charged $2,800, including prenatals and 6 weeks post birth. And if we get it paid off by the 28th week, we get $400 back! Woot! Also, tricare would still cover all labs and ultrasounds. So I think that is the route we are going. The hospital with the midwives they want me to go to doesn;t even offer water births. Boo.

 

[Samantha675]

It is money well spent in my opinion.

 

[Hels_Bells]

Oh yeah!! We are doing it

 

[Deimos]

Even if you end up in hospital, great advice I was given was to arrange the room the way you want to, rather than the way the doctors want it. Put all your bags on the bed as soon as you arrive so you are not attempted to lie on it so you are more likely to get a natural birth position, for example. For examinations, only lie down if they really need you to, then get back up again as soon as possible. Most hospitals are good about this nowadays, but haven't set up their rooms to encourage it. If you are doing it at home, there are plenty of options, but think about it at first so you aren't rushing around arranging everything with your birth partner when time is getting really tight.