home birth in Carbondale IL

[DMGCNM]

I'm a CNM in NC  with a home birth practice and we are thinking about moving to Carbondale IL. How is the natural/birth community? Are there CPM's in the area?~Donna

[TheSlingMama]

Well, there are at least two crunchy mamas in the area but I am unsure of CPMs.  :)

[DMGCNM]

Can you pas on my info to them and ask them to call www.monarchmidwifery.com. Thanks

[doulawho]

Hello! I am a doula in central Illinois (planning a homebirth in August, too :)) To my knowledge there are no CNM's doing homebirths in southern Illinois. Only Northern Illinois and the Peoria/ Bloomington Area. I believe there are CPM's. I can ask around. If there aren't in S. Illinois, then surely in Kentucky or Missouri, which are very close.

I know that women all across Illinois wish they had more homebirth options, so I hope you decide to come! I will certainly spread the word to my contacts in Carbondale.

[TheSlingMama]

Well, I'm one of those crunchy mamas and my bestie is the other!  ROFL!  If you do move here please let us know and we can set up something - even if you don't have your little one yet.  We're ideally trying to start a crunchy mama group but it's hard as it's just the two of us!  I have yet to find even so much as a doula in the area (although I am training). 

I did find this while searching.  East Cape Girardeau is very near Carbondale so it might be a viable option and you may wish to give them a call.

Southeast Missouri Midwifery Services   East Cape Girardeau MO  62957  618-292-4732

[DMGCNM]

Doulawho can you tell me who you are birthing with? Do you have a midwife?

Slingmama I would love to chat with you. I have connections in KY so I'm thinking about opening up an office in Paducha and if CPM's become legal I will deliver in Southern IL and KY. Please feel free to call or e-mail me [e-mail] Donna

[DMGCNM]

oh ps I may need a doula working on another baby!~Donna

[chirodoula24]

Hi there. I am originally from Anna, IL which is just south of Carbondale. I am now living in St. Louis. I am a Chiropractor, Doula, going to be Encapsulating Placentas, doing Childbirth Ed, and studying to be a midwife through AAMI. I am hoping to expand my doula and placenta encapsulation services down to Southern IL as well (we have family there). 

I doula'd a birth with a CNM 2 years ago at Memorial Hosp of Carbondale. She got fired a few months later and as far as I know there are no CNM in the area. There are a couple of CPM's, although I do not personally know them. 

I believe there is a movement going on down there and believe this area needs more natural minded people/practitioners down there. 

I would love to help you anyway I can. Please contact me if you are interested in talking more.

Blessings,

Alicia

www.yourjoyfulbirth.com 

[gr00vymama]

I live in Carbondale and am ttc and searching for a midwife that will deliver even if it can't be a homebirth.  I haven't had any luck yet:(  The closest I've found is Cape Girardeau, mo.  There is a large number of natural mommas in this area and we could certainly use more:) especially with midwife/homebirth experience!  Not to mention how beautiful Southern Illinois is!! 

[HariB]

SlingMama--the midwife link you posted is...odd.  East Cape Girardeau is in IL, not MO, and it gives an IL zipcode (I checked because I wondered if there was a MO East Cape, along with an IL East Cape).  But maybe that mw is trying to stay under the radar since direct-entry midwifery in IL is illegal.  Have you talked to her?  I wonder if she'd want to be publically advertised in an IL hb thread...? 

Anyway, yeah, the homebirth situation in IL sucks--unless you live up north where there are some CNM options.

[TheSlingMama]

No I haven't spoken with her. I believe there is an East Cape in MO. I'll have to drive that way and check.

[HariB]

Um...there is no East Cape G in Missouri, I checked the maps, and I've lived in the region now for many years.  Like East St Louis, East Cape is on the East side of the Mississippi, which is in IL.  The mw was clearly trying to identify herself as a MO mw, not IL.  I don't know if she is practicing in IL or not--but I do know that any non-CNM mw in IL would be trying to keep off the IL radar.  The IL med board has had a major hard on for mws for 30yrs now....lots of prosecutions, lots of C&D orders issued, and I beleive the one in question got a C&D (cease and desist the practice of medicine or nurse-midwifery without a license) some years back (and they never expire until/unless licensing is achieved). 

[TheSlingMama]

IDK then.  Maybe she just practices with women from MO.  If you're looking it's worth a call to find out at the very least.

[HarleeMomma910]

I found this thread via a Google search on homebirthing in Southern Illinois, and I immediately joined Mothering.com so I could get in on this!  I live in Red Bud, which is about an hour & a half north of Carbondale.  I'm 25 weeks pregnant with my first child and I'm really really wanting an all-natural pregnancy and birth, and so far haven't found ANYbody to give me the pre-natal experience I desire.  I found a group of midwives in Maryville, IL (an hour north of me) and I'm seeing one there, but they're employed by the women's center up there through Anderson Hospital in Maryville.  So I still feel like a medical patient and I don't like it .  I'm trying to find a midwife in the St. Louis area, since that's just an hour away, who'll give me as close to a homebirth experience as I can get in IL.

SlingMama, I'm totally interested in adding myself as one more person to your Crunchy Mama group, IL needs HELP, especially way down here, and I'm ready to help do something about it!

[babyshotton]

Hi!

I am pretty late in this thread & I was wondering if the ladies here are still active? I am in carbondale & 14 weeks pregnant & I want a natural birth PLEASE!!!! I really really want to have all the options available to us for natural birth. I tried to look for a water births & found out it is illegal in illinois!! :( this just sucks! 

I would really really appreciate any help or input about this!  Is anyone out there? I am also interested in the Crunchy momma group too!

[HarleeMomma910]

I'm still here!  My little guy is still in the oven but any week now he'll be here!  Congrats on your pregnancy, is this your first?  I know exactly how you feel, when I discovered that home birth was illegal in IL I felt so discouraged...  But I knew I HAD to go that route, there's no way I wanted to have my baby in a hospital (unless, of course, something went terribly wrong, in which case that's what hospitals are there for) nor did I want to argue with doctors or nurses to get my way for a natural birth.  I'm just an hour away from St. Louis - home birth is legal as of 2008 in MO, btw - and I went to a very holistic massage school there so I got in touch with the owner's wife who had all six of her kids at home and she helped guide me to some different midwives and I have successfully found some wonderful women who are willing to come out to my house in IL to assist our birth - under the radar and everything.  When I was talking to her I got the impression there are midwives in IL that work completely under the radar, but they are VERY hard to find, for obvious reasons.  I have no idea who any of them are or where they are, but I imagine if you talk to the right people you might be able to find someone who knows someone, ya know?  You didn't really mention home birth in your post though - you just said water birth - were you wanting to go the home birth route or are you more focused on being able to have a natural birth regardless of location?  I'd check into different websites: http://midwivesofillinois.org/index.html is one, there's a listing on there for Carbondale it looks like, and then there's Illinois Families for Midwifery at http://home.earthlink.net/~birthnews/index.html and it looks like there are some links there to contact people, maybe you can ask about any midwives that might be able to help you who are close to or in your area.  Then I also found Coalition for Illinois Midwifery at http://www.illinoismidwifery.org/, again there are some contact options on there that maybe you can get in touch with the right person.  Plus it offers options for how to get proactive to get IL to change if you were interested in that.  You can also try Friends of Missouri Midwives at http://www.friendsofmomidwives.org/FoMMHome.aspx even though we're in IL, I've heard that some may have contact with people in IL that may be able to help you, maybe just send them an email and see what they have to say.  You're only 14 weeks along so you've got plenty of time - I didn't find my midwives until I was at 28 weeks!  I'm so grateful they still accepted me so late in the game!

You're welcome to PM me if you wanna talk more, I'd be happy to be in touch via email or phone!  I haven't heard any more about the crunchy mama idea, I was hoping someone would start that up...

Best of luck to you!  Just keep a positive attitude and stay focused and you'll be guided to exactly where you need to be! :)

[thebassomatic76]

Hi babyshotton!  I didn't post on this particular thread, but I live in Carbondale (moved here mid-pregnancy in Jan) and I too deeply wanted a homebirth.  I started looking last year and posted about it on MDC then.  I would have loved a waterbirth at home, but even just a homebirth would have been a dream come true.  Unfortunately, what the above poster said about finding a HB midwife down here is true--it is VERY VERY VERY hard to get any information.  I have no doubt that there are midwives still helping in the area, as I have spoken in person to women here who have either recently had a homebirth or may be having another soon, however no one who had the information seemed willing to share it.  I was told a few people in the area who I could ask specifically, but when I brought up homebirth to those people, they kept tight lipped--so no chance at all for me.  I had one person who shared direct information with me, but it was information that was no longer current.  Maybe you will have better luck though, and I definitely recommend trying to find out what you can.  I don't know if the brick wall I hit was because I was/am new to the area.  After being away for many years, I had forgotten how closed the environment here in So IL can be to "outsiders."  If you've been living here awhile, you may have an advantage there.

If this is your first birth or a subsequent birth and you know you don't go too fast, I would recommend looking in Cape.  There are homebirth midwives there and it's only an hour away.  Unfortunately there's no birth center, so you'd be looking at a hotel or some other alternative arrangement, but honestly after my experience here I think you're far more likely to be able to work that out than to find any information on getting help here.  With my son, I dilated from 4cm to 10 cm in 45 mins, so neither DH nor I was comfortable trying to make it an hour's drive during my labor.  I don't want to deliver on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

I would consider myself a semi-crunchy momma :).  I don't really fit neatly into any boxes.  :)  Good luck, I hope you can find the experience you are looking for, or at least make peace with the experience you ultimately will have--I'm working on that one myself, since I am stuck with a hospital birth (I'm due this Sun).  It's a challenge but I'm trying.  :)   Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or just want to talk. 

[Valerie]

At the risk of seeming a bit obsessive, homebirth is not illegal anywhere in the U.S., including Illinois.  It is the birth attendant who might be a bit legally questionable.  In Illinois it is illegal for a midwife who is not a CNM to attend births. 

It really is an important distinction -- if homebirth is illegal, it implicates the parents and potentially makes them subject to prosecution.  In fact, it is the midwife who may be prosecuted for practicing medicine/nursing/nurse-midwifery without a license.

[babyshotton]

Congrats HarleeMomma! So you are due any week now?! thats awesum! :) Thanks so much for your informative post! I did go through the midwives website & they were really hard to reach! :( I dont think homebirthing is illiegal...but midwives cannot attend it (or seems like it) - so that would be illegal. If you find someone who knows you well...then that would be a different story! :)

I did not have a very good experience at one of the OB/GYN offices attached to the memorial hospital of carbondale. So, now I am looking at Marion. :) 

I did find a couple of doulas around this area: So, if you or anyone else here is interested then I could forward their details to you! I am glad you have found a good midwife! :)

Right now I am also reading the Hypnobirthing book. I have read some pretty good reviews about it & I am excited to start practicing it! :)

I would love to get your email address & be in touch with you! 

I wish you luck! :) I hope your experience is beautiful. 

[babyshotton]

@bassomatic momma:

WOW! You are due on sunday!! ladies here are way ahead of me here ;)  good luck momma! I am sure you are excited! I had trouble with the waterbirth & homebirth options...so I guess I will have to work around those hurdles!! So what hospital are you going to? good luck with all that! I hope you have a great birthing experience! :)

This is my 1st time & thats why all the excitement & nervousness ;)