All About the Midwifery Fee

06/16/21 • 37 min

This week we tackle a topic that most of us don't particularly enjoy talking about: money. We cover a number of topics related to your financial agreement with your home birth midwives from what is involved in the fee to insurance reimbursement to refunds. Just a few takeaways from this week's podcast are: * You are not paying for a home birth, you are paying for midwifery care. * Your midwifery fee not only pays for our practice, it pays our salaries. * Choosing a home birth (at least in our state) means opting out of the usual financial processes and structures of the health care system. * While we absolutely love our career and are called to it, it isn't a hobby for us and we're not able to take a high enough volume to offset poor reimbursement rates. * Overall, it is best to consider whether all of the services and value-added benefits that come with home birth are worth it for you to pay the fee out of pocket. While some reimbursement may happen in some cases, it's best not to bank on it. Is this something that's worth paying for? If yes, great. If not, there may be lower out of pocket options for you. *Finally, not only is health care expensive in this country, but kids are as well. We often joke about our hourly rate vs. our kids' orthodontists. Midwives are a great value. No contest. We hope this episode clears up some of the confusion out there about the midwifery fee!

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Practical Advice for Midwifery Practice: Pros and Cons of Office Types

This week, Gina and Nedra bring you another episode in our Practical Advice for Midwifery Practice series. Over the years and between the two of us, we've had a lot of different office configurations: home visits in the clients' home, shared office space, home offices in the midwives' homes, and dedicated office space. This week, we discuss the pros and cons of each, as well as considerations as you embark upon setting up your practice space. We hope you enjoy!

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Babies After Dark

In this week's podcast, Gina and Nedra talk about parenting babies in the wee hours. From what to expect with feeding, to the importance of skin to skin and close contact, to a discussion about safe sleeping arrangements, it's all covered in this episode. As promised, in the discussion of skin to skin, Gina mentioned that she would provide references for thermoregulation (including temperature adjustment up and down to help babies regulate their own body temperature). Here are a couple resources to for your perusal, including an amazing study that shows breasts can adapt differently to accommodate twins' needs! Breast-Infant Temperature with Twins during Shared Kangaroo Care:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1890034/ Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3979156/ The effect of mother and newborn early skin-to-skin contact on initiation of breastfeeding, newborn temperature and duration of third stage of labor: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6048813/