homebirth

[mimom]

Greetings!

I am a mom of two hospital birthed babes and would like to try homebirth for number three. I was wondering if anyone knows what the laws are in south west mighigan?

I have been doing a lot of reading on this site concerning homebirth, GSB+ , insurance issues, lay midwives and a plethora of other topics. I'm especially curious about birth certificate issues in this area and the process for any of the testing we may want done or that is required by the state.

Most of all I'm curious about the response of the pediatricians during a visit following a homebirth

Thanks for any info-

mimom

[Spark]

Hi, Mimom!

I live in SouthEast Mighigan & grew up in Battle Creek. I had a homebirth this past November. And, it was great!

The birth certificate (and sometimes the testing) is taken care of by the midwife, just as the hospital would. If your midwife doesn't take care of the testing (btw they aren't manditory in Michigan, just routinely done by hospitals) then you can take the baby to the hospital or Dr. office.

As far as how Dr.s feel about seeing a homebirth baby, it depends on your Dr. My midwife handled all the newborn check-ups until the baby was a month old. Then, we took him to the Dr. I have heard horror stories about Drs. seeing homebirth babies a few days after birth and ording tons of tests for them, because they doubt their health. I believe that is why my midwife did the check-ups.

If you want to chat a bit, feel free to e-mail me. My address is [e-mail]

[cottonwood]

With our first the midwife did the well-baby checks for the first six weeks. We had the PKU done at the local clinic, explaining that our other health care had been taken care of by the midwife. I did get some flack about not vaccinating, but not about having the well-baby checks done by the midwife -- after all, it is pretty basic stuff, it's not rocket science. You could do most of it yourself with some minimal education. At two months we began well-baby checks with a pediatrician who did not seem to care one way or another that we'd had a homebirth -- it was never a topic of conversation.

Our second and third have not been in for *any* well-baby visits. I just figured that it was pointless to spend that money (even though our insurance covered it) and expose the kids to germs just so the doctor could tell me what I already knew, which was that my babies were healthy and normal. We did, with our third, take her in to see a pediatrician at about four months of age to have her hips checked. Her leg creases did not match up, and our family has a history of hip problems, so I first had a midwife check her. She did not find any problems, but I wanted to be absolutely sure so I got a second opinion. The doctor concurred that her hips were fine.

This last time when I took my baby in for an after birth check-up, it was so nice, I layed her on the soft bed in the natural light coming through the window, the midwife oohed and aahed over her, even giving her a little infant massage while she very gently checked her over. The baby didn't utter a peep the whole time, and afterwards I picked her up to nurse her, and we talked about all sorts of baby health care related things for about an hour. It was very different than your typical pediatrician visit!

[mimom]

sweetwater,

Your experience sounds wonderful. At this point I am really curious about where I can even find someone who will attend a home birth. None of the CNM's I have found have that kind of practice, in fact the clinic where I am currently going, for what I'm not sure, is pretty much like going to an obstitrician's appt. in and out essentially to tell me what I already know--I'm fine and the baby is growing--not rocket science, especially I don't think my clothes are spontaneously shrinking :-)

How do you go about finding someone who will attend the birth?

[kama'aina mama]

Hey mimom, welcome to the counterculture! Looking for homebirth referals can be tricky since many of them have to operate on the fringes of the law. Try going to a LLL meeting (pregnant women are always welcome) and ask who had a home birth. I can all but guarantee someone will have. Also the leader might know the names of a midwife or two. Also, find your local Bradley instructor. Take her class. Okay, even if you don't she is likely to have referals also. Good luck!

ps, bear in mind, you will probably have to pay for it out of pocket and your insurance is unlikely to reimburse. Sucks, don't it?

[cottonwood]

I'm sorry I don't know anything about the homebirth climate in Michigan. I did feel just like you, though, when I had decided to do a homebirth -- I didn't have any idea where to start looking for a midwife! I know now that some advertise in the phonebook, but most get business through word of mouth. I ended up getting leads from a low-income health clinic, from a WIC counselor, and from an LLL leader who I spoke with on the phone (I've never actually been to a meeting.) I met another midwife in my area through a parenting bulletin board on the internet. Other avenues to try: talk to people who work at natural food co-ops and women's bookstores.

Here are a few I found from doing a search at MidwiferyToday:

http://www.findamidwifetoday.com/bir...od=0&states=MI

Good luck!

[cottonwood]

Oh, and one more thing -- a good midwife knows how important it is to have a good care provider/client match, in terms of both philosophy and personality, and should be willing to help you in your search by recommending other midwives for you to interview. It doesn't hurt to ask! I widened my search considerably by doing so.

[Junitune]

I don't know any homebirth midwives in se michigan, but I had a wonderfuly homebirth in nw michigan last october. For some reason my midwife was easy to find in traverse city. For the birth certificate she gave me a worksheet that I took to the county courthouse and they issued the birth certificate right there. She also performed the PKU test and for any other tests I might have wanted she said I could go to a pediatrician. My dd hasn't seen any other drs - hasn't needed it! At six weeks I went to my midwife's house and she did a checkup.

The climate in northern michigan is very accepting and I had no problem finding people at LLL who knew all the midwives. If you'd like me to I can check with my midwife to see if she can recommend anyone in se mich. Good luck!

[Junitune]

woops! Sorry mimom, I just noticed you were in sw, not se mich.

One other thing, my midwife charged me $1500 and I just received a check about a month ago from my insurance company. They paid for $1280! That's not to guarantee your insurance company will pay but I do think the climate in Michigan is one of the most favorable.

My midwife was a lay midwife. I don't think the CNM's can attend homebirths. She did practice in Lansing for a while and I know there are many lay midwife's attending homebirths in Michigan. Unfortunately I live in Ohio now and it's not so easy here!

[mimom]

Hi all!
I'm new to discussion groups so it really fun to connect and see the responses from you all.

Sounds like we should be living further north. I'm not really concerned about newborn testing etc. as my dh is a pediatrician finishing up his residency. He could probably get just about any paper work, or testing supplies we might need if we wanted them. I'm not at all concerned about access to a pediatrician if we would want or need one outside of the house.

I found out today that there are actually two of us currently looking due about a month apart.

I would be really apprehensive about asking the two CNMs we are currently seeing. They've already raised their eyebrows at our refusal of the Rhogam shot during pregnancy. Logic defies as both dh and I are negative. Their claim was that it was for the protection of future children. We had a good laugh over that one as this pregnancy was a total surprise as we were sure we were done as a family of four.