- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Austin Babies
CharStensrud
member
Midwifes: Is anyone using one?
CharStensrud
member
I recently watched a movie/documentray and I am really leaning toward having one, but one more insight from others who have used one or are planning too or can point in the direction of some good information on them here is Austin.
Thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Midwifes: Is anyone using one?
There are a lot of wonderful midwives in the Austin area! If you want a hospital birth with a midwife, Dr. Sebasteyn (sp?) at NAMC is your only option, which is a shame. I had a great midwife-managed hospital birth in North Carolina, and I wish there were more options for that in Austin.
If you want a birthing center, the Austin Area Birthing Center is the biggest and most well known, but Birthwise is also an option. The midwife who runs Birthwise also does home births. We looked at birthing centers, but I felt that if I was going to be outside of the hospital, I'd rather just stay at home.
If you want a home birth, you have a lot of options. It's really all about finding the person with whom you "click." Be sure to ask about reasons why they transfer a laboring mom to a hospital, what experience they have with complications, what sort of back up arrangements they have with doctors/hospitals - in other words, if you have to go to the hospital, where does the midwife prefer to take you? I interviewed close to a half dozen midwives, and I chose Kristen Elliott with Moms & Miracles. She has a very calming presence about her, which I felt was something that I really needed and that would be a good compliment to the Hypnobabies method we are using for our son's birth.
Kristen comes to our home for appointments, and she has a wonderful apprentice midwife who comes with her and who will also attend our birth. She brings all the supplies with her, including a birthing pool. It is wonderful! She's never been late for an appointment, and our appointments are pretty lengthy - she's been here for two hours before! There's definitely a level of thoroughness that I just did not have with the OB I saw earlier in my pregnancy. She does have backup doctors she works with for everything from a routine ultrasound to more serious complications, and if we have to transfer to the hospital, she will stay with us the entire birth and act as our doula. So far, I'm absolutely thrilled with midwifery care!
Cost-wise, we found that prenatal care and a homebirth with a midwife in Austin ranged from about $2500 - $4000 or so, which is significantly less than you'd pay just to give birth in a hospital, not counting prenatal care. However, insurance coverage for midwives, homebirths and birthing centers varies tremendously. We should be able to get some reimbursement from our insurer for at least some of what we are paying Kristen, as she should be considered an out of network provider. For us, the cost of OB prenatal care and a hospital birth was going to run about $3,000, which would include our deductible and the percentage of the hospital stay we'd owe, so we felt that if we had to pay, we might as well pay to be in the comfort of our own home with a provider we really trusted.
Hope that helps!
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
Haha, I'm here!! I was actually busy with the acupuncturist today...trying to get this baby going!
Ditto everything mcgee said - she's been through it all and has researched her options!
I am a Dr. Sebestyen patient, and the midwives at the practice have seen to the majority of my prenatal care. I've only seen Dr. S a few times (mostly early on in this pregnancy and directly after my miscarriage). I really love Dr. S and the midwives, as well as the other doc in the practice, Dr. Campaigne. As others have said, they are the go-to if you want to have a very low-intervention birth in a hospital setting.
We looked into Austin Area Birthing Center, but for us it just wasn't a good fit. I didn't really "click" with the midwife I met with there. Though I think it would have been a good experience regardless, DH and I both decided that for our first baby, a hospital birth was what we were most comfortable with. Dr. Sebestyen's practice is a VERY good balance between what I call the "granola-crunchy" low-intervention perspective with all the options of a hospital birth. That being said, if you are really adamant about any and all interventions entirely and don't even want the option of having an epidural or other interventions, I'd probably steer you towards one of the birthing centers and the midwives that attend there. (I'm still not 100% anti-epidural; since I've never experienced birth before and have no idea what it's going to be like, I still want the option available to me! But if this birth goes well and I'm able to do it med-free, we will most certainly be looking into the birthing center option again.)
We didn't look into any home-birth midwives just because I didn't feel like I particularly wanted a home birth - still a little uncomfortable with that idea for myself. So I'll defer to mcgee again on that subject. (I do think mcgee is a total ROCK STAR for going for the home birth, and I can't wait to hear how it all goes!)
Good luck with whatever option you decide on!
Awww... Collie, hold off on the "rock star" praise until I actually do it!
I had a hospital birth the first time around, and it was what I needed at the time. This time, a home birth just feels right for us. I can totally understand a first-time mom feeling more comfortable in a hospital because of the availability of anesthesia.
FYI: Hypnobabies offers a hypnosis CD called "Come out Baby" that is for overdue moms. You can download it as an MP3 too so you'll have it right away. I'm not sure if it'll help, but it can't hurt.
https://hypnobabies.com/store/shop.php?pid=8&sid=4&cid=4&start=0
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
AWESOME! Thank you! I'm going to download now, 'cause well, it can't hurt.