Mothering Forum banner

Twin Cities homebirth midwife suggestions?

4K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  niatatum 
#1 ·
I'm currently 17wks. pregnant with my 3rd and looking into home birth as an option. Does any have any suggestions for midwives in the Twin Cities area?

Has anyone ever used Maureen Dahl for a home birth, or Trillium Midwives?

Thanks for any help or suggestions!
 
#8 ·
Hi! I just had a homebirth (12/20/10) and Maureen Dahl was one of my midwives, along with her associate, Jenny Hall. (Maureen was scheduled for a vacation for my due date, which is why I worked with both of them. My baby was born at 42 weeks, so both Jenny and Maureen attended the birth.) Since she was at 42 weeks, we had to begin considering natural induction methods to keep us from having to be turned over to an OB/GYN's care. They both came to my house and stayed with me through the day as we did a variety of natural methods to gently get labor going...which worked, she was born that night! I recommend both Maureen and Jenny; they have different personalities and slightly different ways of going about some things, so it would be worth it to interview both of them, in my opinion, to see which best suits your style. My sister-in-law had Maureen for 2 of her homebirths, and recommends her, also.

Feel free to let me if you have more specific questions.
 
#9 ·
I definitely have my work cut out for me! There have been so many great suggestions and I'm currently interviewing many midwives that have been recommended. It's hard to choose!!

Christalena- I loved your post and appreciated reading that so much because my first baby was 42 weeks, but because we were using midwives through the hospital I was basically told to come in and be induced, or be turned over to whatever care would be available. It was hard to think that I was being tossed aside just because my baby was "running late." I loved hearing how they worked with you to naturally move things along and not force your body to do something it wasn't totally ready to do. It was a long, hard road to deliver my son and I never want to go through that again.

We are scheduled to meet with Maureen and I will for sure check in with Jenny Hall as well. I feel like my calendar is full of "interviews" but it is very fun to listen to what all the midwives have to say and empowering to realize I have a choice!

THANK YOU!!
 
#10 ·
Awesome, I'm glad you're meeting with Maureen, and I hope you do get a chance to meet with Jenny! Yes, I am very thankful that they helped me get things moving, since my daughter was apparently content to stay right where she was! I was nervous about doing even natural "induction"; Maureen and Jenny both were very sweet and talked over my concerns with me before we got started with anything. We had fun throughout the day as we chatted and waited for labor to start. It was a great part of the experience. (I hope that you don't have to go that long this time though! This was my second birth, and I was very surprised I went that long, since my first was born at 41 weeks.)

Good luck, and take care! (And again, feel free to ask me anything specific, if you want to at any point.)
 
#13 ·
Thanks, Christalena! Yes, I'm hoping not to have to go so long again, but my first was 42 weeks and second was 41 weeks (they "massaged" my membranes) so....perhaps I just "run late" (which is totally not my personality!) :) I agree. I certainly want to let my body do what it wants in it's own time, but I do start getting nervous after my first experience. I'd love to hear what Maureen and Jenny did to get things going. I don't mind waiting for baby and body to be ready, but everyone seems to hit the panic button at 41 weeks. I actually had already checked out Jenny's website by googling her name when you suggested her and I will certainly set up a meeting with her as well. It will be interesting to see the differences in personalities and what kind of fit they might be!

NatraMommy, I love your suggestion and had checked out Amy Johnson-Grass's website as well. I am definitely going to follow-up with her and even if we don't do a homebirth through her, I plan on bringing my little girl in to see her. She's had some (possibly?) eczema or allergy issues since about 6 months and I think it might be milk (which I stayed away from during nursing entirely and it seemed to help) but I want to take her in and see what Amy has to say. I will ALWAYS go the naturopathic route when possible!

Thank you, everyone, for all your kindness and wonderful suggestions. I have been BUSY following up on all of them, but it has been a tremendous blessing as we journey along with baby #3!
 
#15 ·
Jeanne is not licensed, although she is a CPM. I carried one of my babies 17 days past my EDD, and while we talked about our options, (bio profile, vaginal check, non stress test) there was never any pressure to preform. Thank goodness!

42 weeks is a normal healthy time for many many women to carry to. I would love to think that by choosing a homebirth, you don't have to have the pressure of dates. That is a really good question to ask. There is a lot of variety!

Sarah B.
 
#16 ·
Just going to chime in to say I had Maureen Dahl for my 2nd DD's homebirth/waterbirth 4 years ago, and I loved her. Great pre and post care, helped me so much with the little problems along the way I was having (both physically and mentally). Hope you find the right person for you!
 
#17 ·
Homebirthing - you help put my mind at ease about dates. You are right. The more people we interview, the more I am finding that they are not set in stone about due dates. Such a breath of fresh air! That, in and of itself, is a major pull towards homebirthing. We are still interviewing, as well as having all those fun phone calls with insurance to find out what, if anything, can be covered. Health Partners has been great about answering questions, but when everything is considered out-of-network it gets tricky. It's so frustrating to feel like your health insurance doesn't cover anything! (Unless you want to head straight to the hospitals.)

Mombear- I loved your post! We really enjoyed meeting Maureen. She certainly seemed to be a like-minded personality for us and we are definitely considering her. I also loved your profile data! It made me laugh b/c (minus the dog) it could possibly be mine. I love running (finished my first marathon then found out a week later #3 was on the way!), can't wait for spring and starting the garden again, and will soon be starting homeschool with my son in the fall. I taught at a private Christian school and homeschooling feels like a natural fit for us. I would LOVE to hear what you have to say about "eclectic homeschooling" and am completely curious....what is a "crunchy Christian??" :)
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Mombear- I loved your post! We really enjoyed meeting Maureen. She certainly seemed to be a like-minded personality for us and we are definitely considering her. I also loved your profile data! It made me laugh b/c (minus the dog) it could possibly be mine. I love running (finished my first marathon then found out a week later #3 was on the way!), can't wait for spring and starting the garden again, and will soon be starting homeschool with my son in the fall. I taught at a private Christian school and homeschooling feels like a natural fit for us. I would LOVE to hear what you have to say about "eclectic homeschooling" and am completely curious....what is a "crunchy Christian??" :)
It's so fun to find like-minded people on these forums :) Our eclectic homeschooling philosophy is, briefly, a bit of Moore's "Better Late than Early", a bit of Charlotte Mason's living books, and a bit of John Holt's unschooling, all looked at through our Christian worldview ;) With our 9 year old, she does maybe 30 min to 1 hr of daily work and lots of self-lead reading, the 5 yr-old just plays and helps around the home and listens to books. We describe ourselves, a bit tongue in cheek, as crunchy Christians, a lot like "homebirthing" (sarahB) does in her post: we cloth diapered, co-slept, attachment parented, breastfed each DD about 2 years... while still holding to our conservative Christian beliefs. (We're the "weird" ones at our church who won't let our kids play on the lawn the week after they spread chemicals)

Yay running!! I've done a 20K or a 1/2 marathon with my dad every spring since about 1997: one time I was pregnant and didn't know it, one I had just found out I was pregnant (then the two runs after those years I was in double sports-bras and nursing a baby at the finish line!)

Regarding our experience with insurance and homebirth - it's odd, but when we talked to the insurance company before-hand, trying to tell them what we were doing, they're saying "yeah, we don't cover any of that"... so, we went along, paying Maureen as we went, not really expecting much. However, going through her person for insurance claims (you'd have to talk w/ her about how this works), it took a bit under a year and we had a good chunk of the money back that we paid out. Disclaimer that I don't have any idea how this would work for your insurance specifically (we had Medica at the time), our how insurance is paying out these days in general, but I will say we were very pleasantly surprised at how we did get money back even after the insurance said they wouldn't pay. You never know!
 
#21 ·
Homebirthing- I love it! Chickens in the backyard! Wish we had the room. I'm just happy we have enough space for a garden...as long as the deer don't help themselves to everything. I have to say, we didn't do the cloth diapering, but everything else seems on point. We decided to go with disposables and EC'ing. Talk about getting some weird looks! Even family members thought we were a bit "out there" when we did EC, but we had great results and early potty training, so I can't complain!

Mombear- I'm definitely checking out some sites on "eclectic homeschooling." I love that it combines different styles as one just doesn't seem to fit entirely. Your post gave me so much more to explore in that regard. I taught for 5 years before staying home when our son was born and I'm still finding it overwhelming when I think of curriculum choices, foreign language options, etc. I know, from experience as a teacher, that this is the right choice for my kids. I can't tell you how much time gets wasted in the classroom, even when the teacher is totally prepared and ready to go. It's all about numbers! When you have 25 kids in a class, time is bound to get lost helping others, disciplining, etc. etc. Not only that, but you never know what is being imparted to your kids during those long hours every day. I feel like God has definitely used my experience to help guide us in this direction for our family and I'm very excited about what it holds.

I loved the "nursing at the finish line!" Awesome. I don't run while I'm pregnant, it's just so hard on my knees, but I hear you on the double sports bra while nursing! LOL How can we avoid it when we nurse for over 2 years? Both mine nursed for over 2 years, and yes, we get looks....but we are just like you posted...we don't even treat out yard with chemicals and I certainly don't let my kids play in yards that have just been treated! My sweet husband has his work cut out for him against weeds and keeping a nice looking yard, but we feel it's worth it in the end. Always nice to have a husband on board when you get the crazy looks from others!

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I love the like-mindedness on the forums! You are right. Health Partners says they won't cover anything, so I'm still praying about what to do. It's frustrating, but I want to have total peace in the decision we make for our family, AND no regrets about possibly not doing a homebirth. Whew...so much to think and pray about!!
 
#22 ·
I have to say as not only as an apprenticing homebirth midwife, but as a homebirthing mother, if birthing at home seems to be the best fit for you, don't let finances be your deciding factor. In fact, if you could take finances away completely, what would be your choice? If it is hands down a homebirth, then trust that God will put the right midwives in your path.

We all get paid in different ways and every midwife is different on her feelings about payment. You certainly will have those who want to be paid in full before the birth, but know that not everyone is that way. There are midwives who take payment plans, or work for partial payment and barter, or reduced fee or come up with something else entirely.

Do continue to pray about it, but if you notice God putting homebirth in front of you, and you worrying about money, take away the money part, and you will see God's plan. If it is to birth at a hospital, you will see that too. So often I worry over something that seems clouded, but in hindsite, the path I was supposed to take was so crystal clear. It was just clouded with my own doubt and I had to put blind faith in what I was supposed to do, and trust that it would always be the right thing, even if I couldn't see it.

Remember, God is good!! Whatever you decide, I hope that you have an amazing birth, filled with many miracles!

Sarah B.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Childbirth_Fanatic View Post

I used Vanessa Stephens Coldwater and I loved her!
Same here, gave birth about 4 weeks ago. She is awesome and extremely knowledgable. DD was coming out with shoulder dystocia and I'm not exactly sure yet what Vanessa did to 'fix' it (I will ask her at next appt) but whatever she did it worked! We also had awesome doula http://www.elleosbirth.com/
 
#25 ·
Wondering which midwife you ended up choosing. What did you think of Health foundations? Did you use if for your child's eczema? I am thinking of trying it to treat my sons eczema. I recently toured the place as an option for my next birth, and loved it, but am confused by some of the charges, as my insurance covers it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top