Plans changed mid-pregnancy :( - Advice??

[JadeCrusader]

Okay, so I have two forms of health insurance. One that will only pay 60% of my midwife and the other, come to find out, won't cover the midwife I've chosen because she's licensed in Oregon and my insurance is Washington based. So basically I'm going to be stuck paying 40%, but since I got layed off very recently, the only money we have coming in just BARELY covers our current bills, so the midwife bills are pretty much not going to happen. We were banking on our secondary insurance covering the rest of our costs.

Our midwife has only visited and checked up on me once, and I haven't given her our signed contract stating we'd pay no matter what, so I'm not worried about just calling and telling her it's not going to work out. My problem is that she's the ONLY midwife anywhere around who will do a natural home-birth!! The "covered" midwives (and when I say "covered", I mean 100%... I will pay NOTHING if I go with them) want me to give birth in the hospital, which I'm super SUPER against.

So my thought was, maybe I'll go through all the prenatal care with the "covered" midwives, and then just have my original midwife be here for the birth only? (that when she charges and only gets paid 60%, maybe that will be enough for her?? We'd work the details out with her in advance, of course) I honestly doubt she'll want to do that though, because it just seems like a hassle, you know?? If I were her I'd just say "No, I'm sorry" and move on... but maybe she'll do it? I don't know...

My plan B is that I will have all the prenatal visits with the "covered" midwives and then just have an unassisted home-birth. This is our first child though, and I'm a little afraid of that as well!

I'm just so confused... anyone have any thoughts/advice???

 

[JadeCrusader]

BUMP! Just curious if anyone has done an unassisted home-birth, and how that went... Also, has anyone done a midwife birth at a hospital??? Are they just as horrific as having a doctor at a hospital, or are they different or better somehow? I can't see how they would be . I'm super curious to hear personal insight/stories.

 

[mbch]

We do not have a lot of midwives in Missouri as they are just recently allowed, but they cannot "make" you do anything in a hospital unless it is absolutely necessary. If I had to choose between paying 40% of the expenses at home and having it free at a hospital, I would choose the latter and just be very, very prepared to advocate against unnecessary medical interventions. The midwife should be experienced with which hospitals are good at being hands off versus which hospitals push interventions.