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Pregnant Military Wife in Tucson, AZ needs HELP!!

718 Views 17 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  kitty_jo, 
C
Wow. I am surprised I didn't find this forum on my own but thankfully I have it for a resource now!! I am gung ho on the natural childbirth and simple lifestyle (to a point
. I had my first born in Tulsa, OK in a hospital birth center and went completely natural not even an IV. I am happy that everything turned out well but looking back it was a fight to keep it the way I wanted. About 2 hours before my son was born the nurses kept asking me if they could break my water (yeah sure I want more pain....) and they stood in the room and each time they asked i had a contraction. Painful to say the least. Obviously they just did what everyone else was doing and thought it would be best (not so...). I don't want to fight to have a birth thats natural. What happened to birth being a miracle of life not a medical emergency that you have to go to the hospital for?

Prob. #1. I am now living in Tucson that should yeild a wide variety of birthing options and people but I am finding that its not as I thought. Of course being in the miltary I have tri-care insurance and upon learning of my pregnancy IMMIDIATLY knew that i would again do a natural birth and hoped to find a midwife that would help me through it. I also found that there is the Birth and Womens Health Center for women who want to have a natural birth but not at home. Although my sister and i were both born in my mothers room I am not sure that I have found HOME yet... I would LOVE to give birth at the BWHC but tri-care says its out of network. Surprise, surprise. They SAY that they cover home birth but I have not found any midwifes that they cover that do home births. So this puts me in a bad situation. Tri-care has basically told me that i MUST give birth in a hospital. That does NOT sit well with me. In fact I am infuriated. I am trying to fight them to get an auth to give birth there and them pay for it but they want "medical nessecity." I want to give them a mountain of information about the ups of natural labor, comfortable envirnment and mental health of mom. I also would like to find out if ANYONE has fought tri-care and won and were able to have their birth at the BWHC and they paid for it.

Prob. #2 Although my husband is in the military we are only 21 years old with no extra money to pay for doulas and birth centers. When I delivered my son my Bradley birth teacher was also training to be a doula and came to my birth for free and she logged the hours. I don't mind an uncertified doula at my side and would welcome anyone who would be my "doula" so that they can log some hours. If anyone (or yourself) needs some hours or you know where I can find a doula in training then I would like to talk to them.

Prob. #3 IF I were to give birth at home I would be on the base so not just anyone is going to be able to come into my house, or rather it would be my husband or myself signing them in at the gate for every appt, checkup and birth. Have you or someone who have known given birth at ANY base and what kind of procedure did you go through?

All in all I feel that what I want is against what happens in the world. I want to not worry about all this junk while enjoying my second pregnancy. I have enough to worry about!!

I appreciate the help, ideas, and encouragement.

Thanks
Danielle
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A
Hi, Danielle!
Congratulations on your pregnancy! A good place to look for help might be the Arizona Birth Network. I believe the website is www.arizonabirthnetwork.com

I'm sure you could at least find a volunteer doula through this group, and probably someone who is knowlegeable about your insurance plan as well.

Best of luck to you!

Peace,

Jenny
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S
Hi there. I'm in Tucson as well and we also live on base! We live right across the street from Smith Elementary. My first birth was here at St Joe's hospital. I was very mainstream back then but honestly the hospital experience was SO awful that's what turned me towards crunchier ways (although I am really just somewhere between mainstream and AP/natural). Dh and I are going to TTC when he gets back from deployment sometime in Sept or Oct. So in preparing for that I started to do some research. I know for sure that I want to either deliver at the birth center or at home. First off there is a great search function here at mothering. Use it like crazy! I learned a lot by reading all the threads I found using terms like "tricare, military birth, tucson, etc..." Then from those threads I PM'd some of the people. One lady wrote back to me of her experience of how she got Tricare to pay for her homebirth completely. I will PM you with it.

It's possible to do this but it is going to be a fight. What I don't understand is that if you go to the triwest site and do a search for a provider ALL of the midwives at the birth center pop up https://www.triwest.com/triwest/unau...px?id=Location

The people at the tricare office on base are total idiots so don't even bother with them. You need to go higher up, perhaps the regional office. The ones here on base tried to tell me that when I was 9 mos prego and switching from active duty to being a dependant that I wouldn't have coverage for that month! I never have anything but problems with them and they never give the same answer twice, it's terrible.

Next, IF you decide to do a homebirth you can NOT tell anyone "official" that you'll be having one. In almost all cases they are not technically allowed. So if your dh's supervisor, commander, 1st shirt, your next door neighbor, someone at the clinic, etc finds out they will put their foot down. I figure if they don't know about it chances are they never will. If some how they find out afterwards....well it's always easier to just ask for forgiveness and act ignorant lol.

Oh and Tricare will only cover CNMs. Here's a link to the only CNM that does homebirths in Tucson that I could find (I'm really hoping to use her when I get prego! So if you meet with her I'd love to hear your impression!) http://www.tucsonnursemidwives.org/pwholebirth.htm

Phew! I've written a book! I have to admit I'm kind of excited there might actually be someone on base who I could hang out with
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Haha, I'm so silly. I didn't realize you're the one who replied earlier today to my "I need a babysitter" post
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I just had a birth at the Birth Center this past January which was wonderful...I can't offer any knowledgeable advice on your situation, but if you need any support just let me know...I don't live too far from DM, so if you need anything feel free to let me know...I don't have much going on outside of the home currently as I am a new SAHM... :)
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S
Well it looks like we could possibly have a playgroup of 3
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Hi everyone, well is sounds like you are getting great tri-care advice!!!! I haven't any insurance experience, but I did give birth at the birth center. It sounds like if you talk to the right people about the CNM's over there you may get coverage!!!! I know that the BC has an awesome prenatal centering strategey and they will deliver at the hospital.

So if all else fails you could be delivered by a CNM from the birth center... go to all your prenatal care there and do the centering classes. If you do have to deliver at the hospital at least you will have had almost no contact with hospital folks... and the midwives are great!!! I had a friend who wanted to deliver at the BC, but because of low amniotic fluid in her last weeks she was made to deliver at the hospital... she had a great experience. The midwives delivered her and she had NO intervention... so it is possible.

Good luck... and I will also mention that I belong to a network of wonderful moms that get together for playgroups, park days, meetings and other parties and such.... let me know if you want more info!!1

Nancy
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Well it certainly helps to see that you guys have info. I did find out that i can somewhat easily do a home birth just have to fight to get an out of network auth. fun fun...but at least that option is open to me. i think a big thing that i am shying away from in a home birth is not feeling thats its my home. we are moving on base in a month but have no idea what we are getting. if we get one of the old houses thats dingy and dirty and not even worth us giving up the BAH then how am i supposed to birth there? i know that when i do find out what house we get i will have a more solid opinion formed. also with my last birth i was still in pain and although the stuff at the hospital that i should've had didn't work (hot water to say the least...) i KNOW that a personal hot water heater won't give me much relief at home!! i also feel that moving to a slightly different location would really put my mind to focus only on that task, not the laundry, the dishes or the fact that if i give birth at home I have to clean up the mess!!! I am going to try and find some stories of people who have given birth at home but i doubt they will say whethere they cleaned up the messes or not...yes that worrys me...

another thought about tricare. when i talked to them on the phone they said something about having to sign a contract to be an in network facility. obviously they signed one for giving care because you don't need to do much to get prenatal care there. i am going to ask my cnm today to see if they refused to do that or where ever offered and if they wanted to be in network. maybe i can fix the problem once and for all if its as simple as them calling tricare and saying hey we want to be contracted as a birth facility with tricare what do we need to do? i don't imagine that its going to be sooo totally different than providing the care. what do you think?

Play dates sound great!! i am on the east side right now. i also found a DM Moms playgroup/forum. if you go to yahoo and search groups for DMMoms then you can join that group. we haven't done anything recently but its still a small group.

again thanks for the input!!
Danielle
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Quote:

Originally Posted by dhinderliter
i also feel that moving to a slightly different location would really put my mind to focus only on that task, not the laundry, the dishes or the fact that if i give birth at home I have to clean up the mess!!! I am going to try and find some stories of people who have given birth at home but i doubt they will say whethere they cleaned up the messes or not...yes that worrys me...

I've never had a homebirth but I've read about it like crazy. There's actually a homebirth forum here on mothering. It's under the "Birth and Beyond" catagory. There actually is a thread on there asking what the mess is like afterwards. Everyone said the midwives and their assistants always clean everything up afterwards. Apparently the will leave you with one bag of trash and one bag of laundry which they will get going for you before they leave.

I understand not wanting to do a homebirth here on base. That's actually why I go back and forth on it a lot. I've lived in this house for 2 years, and it is clean, but it's not home to me.
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I had an appt. today at the BC and found out that they JUST got approved through tricare to be an in network bc!! That means that you can have your babies there and not have to fight for tricare to pay!!

I am SOOOOO happy!!
I hope that many of us tricare people will be able to use the great center without tricare being bullies!!
Danielle
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That's wonderful news! And I definitely recommend the Centering Pre-Natal program at the BC. It took a while for me to convince my husband to use that option, but even he enjoyed it in the end and it was a great information/connective venue with other expecting parents.
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That's awesome!
I sure hope we're still here when we conceive again!
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mystic~mama
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Quote:

Originally Posted by dhinderliter
I had an appt. today at the BC and found out that they JUST got approved through tricare to be an in network bc!! That means that you can have your babies there and not have to fight for tricare to pay!!

I am SOOOOO happy!!
I hope that many of us tricare people will be able to use the great center without tricare being bullies!!
Danielle
I read your post and wanted to first send a
I was feeling like driving down and helping you (former military wife & studying doula)...its awesome the support you have found here! blessings on your birth~~~~~~
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there is a CNM who does homebirth in the Tucson area- Lisa Block-Weiser
Whole birth midwifery she may be able to help you.

I would think that the birth center is covered- call them and ask if they get paid by tri-care.
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K
I just talked to the BWHC and they are not approved quite yet. They aren't sure how much longer it's going to take! I really wanted to use the center but couldn't afford the expense and now I'm at 5-1/2 months! Running out of time to switch! I'm really hoping that they get it in gear and get the green light! Let's cross our fingers!
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I am 18 weeks so I am not far behind you. As long as they know that you want to birth there you will have plenty of time. They told me that they will definitely be all done with the paperwork by my due date of sept. 1. Just let them know for sure that you want to be there!!!
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DesertFlower
I dont know if she takes insurance or not, bur I would reccomend Lisa Block-Weiser. She did an amazing job at Kai's birth. He weighed 10lbs, and I didnt tear. Another of my friends had her too, and was very happy. She is a nurse-midwife, so you get the best of both worlds. Here is her contact info:
Whole Birth Midwifery
3265 N. Stone Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85705
520-247-7057
email: [email protected]
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Quote:

Originally Posted by dhinderliter
I am 18 weeks so I am not far behind you. As long as they know that you want to birth there you will have plenty of time. They told me that they will definitely be all done with the paperwork by my due date of sept. 1. Just let them know for sure that you want to be there!!!
Well that's a relief. I have my first appointment there on the 6th of June. Finally got fed up enough with the OB doc's office never returning my calls and such that I called Tricare and switched. If you would like to e-mail me and talk, my home e-mail is [email protected]. Good luck!
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