Welcome to day 4 of the Midwifery Series!
Today’s featured Midwife (to be) is Anna Tarbet. Anna is a super sweetie who genuinely loves helping women throughout their pregnancies and birth. While Anna is not yet licensed or certified, she has completed her coursework and preparing for her exam. To read her bio, please refer back to the Day 1 post.
If you have further questions for Anna, please post them below or post on the FB page so others can participate.
1. Some people want only a little of a midwife’s services, not the whole nine yards, why is that not more readily available.
Most midwives try to accommodate the woman’s needs. I would recommend interviewing several midwives and state what specific services they would like. Whether they want only prenatal care, advice, or the whole plan of care, most midwives would be happy to adapt to her needs, and if not, recommend a fellow midwife who would.
2. How are midwives overseen?
The Arkansas State Health Department oversees the licensed midwives here in Arkansas. Midwives are responsible for sending in monthly reports regarding their clients. They also have random chart audits every two years. Midwives are given certain rules and regulations that they must follow.
3. I think it would be nice to know about the qualifications of each state. I know some states allow only Certified Nurse Midwives and other states allow Direct Entry Midwives. What’s the difference between the two and how do I find them?
Both types of midwives are trained to provide care and support to women throughout pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. CNMs have an education in both nursing and midwifery. CNMs are also licensed to prescribe medication. Most of them work in hospitals and birth centers.
Direct Entry Midwives have no nursing education but have received midwifery education from self-study, apprenticeships, and midwifery schools. A direct entry midwife is either a Certified Professional Midwife or a licensed midwife. CPMs are certified by the North American Registry of Midwives. They are required to have completed their education in several core areas as well as clinical skills under the supervision of a licensed midwife. After completing the requirements they can take their exam. Licensed Midwives are licensed by individual states. Each state has its own education and training requirements.
To see what states allow Direct Entry Midwives I recommend going to www.Mana.org. Their website has a great chart showing the status of each state. They also have a place for locating a midwife in a specific area.
4. What are the costs of a midwife? Are there payment plans? Do most insurance companies cover/contribute to the costs?
The costs in our area range from $2500-3500. This fee includes the pre-natal visits, risk assessments, tub rentals, birth, and postpartum services. Most midwives will work with the clients on payment plans. There are currently very few insurance companies that cover Direct Entry Midwife services.
5. What is the difference between a doula and a midwife?
Both offer their services to support a woman emotionally and physically during her pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum period. Midwives have a more extensive education compared to Doulas and are able to provide more medical care such as checking the mother/baby’s well-being, vaginal examinations, vitals, and delivery of the baby.
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Be sure to check back in tomorrow to learn from the next Midwife.
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Thank you for this series. I am 23 weeks, and due to insurance changes, I’ve been seeing a different doctor, but they are very against natural births. This is a rural area, so I don’t have a lot of choices. I would love to do a home birth, but was told that we lived too far away for that. There are no birthing centers in our area and insurance will pay for a midwife, so I was wondering if midwives can and do deliver in hospitals? Also, am I too far along to switch to a midwife? Thanks again, and God bless!
wonderful post!
Here’s a note from Anna, who is having technical difficulties:
23 weeks along isn’t too early to switch but to use a Midwife in the hospital, you would need to see a CNM because Direct-Entry Midwives are not allowed to attend hospital births. However, a Direct-Entry Midwife, could still attend a hospital birth as a doula or Monatrice. A Monatrice is a person who will come to your home to check your progress and advise you as to when it’s an appropriate time to go into the hospital. You will need to ask around to find a Midwife who would be willing to do this.
I would LOVE to have a home birth for our fourth child, after three hospital births…that I hate more with each baby. However, in Illinois, there are only 9 CNM, with them mostly all in the Chicago area…nobody downstate. Wish we could get these laws changed. A bill was recently thrown out that would at least let non-CNM bring emergency patients to a hospital without being persecuted…so much for freedom!
Thank you so much, Anna! The closest CNM in our area is still over two hours away, so I’m guessing that’s too far. Should I call them and try to find out? Also, a friend of mine recently had a home birth, should I ask to speak to her midwife? Admittedly, she lives much closer to the hospital than I do. Are there laws preventing a midwife from delivering someone who lives outside a certain mile radius from the nearest hospital? If not, what can I do to, if anything, to convince this doctor, who induces a lot, to let me be natural? Thanks again.
I just had my 7th baby with midwives after one hospital birth, two miscarriages with doctors and 5 home births. And I can’t say enough positive about my midwives, nor can my husband. Loved my experience with them!
Anna is still having technical difficulties, so here’s her response:
Sarah- Here in Arkansas midwives are only allowed to attend homebirths that are within 50 miles of a hospital. I would go ahead and at least talk to the CNM closest to you, and your friend’s midwife. Mainly just to see what your options are. You never know what they may suggest. I’ve even heard of some couples who lived far from a hospital, setting up their own homebirth setting in a motel closer to a hospital. It may not be the same as your own home, but you can have more control over what things you would like at your birth.