I know of one midwife in the area who will do homebirths, though I might find more once I contact the local Amish/Mennonite communities.

If you don't mind talking money, could you give me a general idea what it cost to have your homebirth? You can include the cost of supplies, a doula, anything else... I really have no clue what to expect.

I was thinking we might be able to find a Memmonite midwife who would be into bartering or something. J is a pretty handy guy.

Our midwife costs about $3000 for our homebirth, which includes her services, her assitant fees and 5 postpartum visits. Our insurance is actually covering about $2000 of it for prenatal care...everything else is out of pocket...supplies, assitant fees and 4 of the 5 postpartum visits.

But we have no local birth centers around and we really did not want a hospital birth, so this is workingout well for us. I must admit I am a little nervous, but I suppose that is normal. My first son was born in a freestanding birth center and it was such a wonderful experience.

my first homebirth was with a CNM it cost 3200, 250 for the aqua doula tub(well worth it imo), 60 for the birth kit, 100-200 for vitamins and herbs and such.

my second birth was with wonderful fantabulous peaceful lay midwives. it was 1000, 35 for the birth kit, 100-150 for vitamins and herbs an such. the lay mw's do barter for births :)

i had been planning a uc but really ended up needing the support they gave me


the second birth suited me far better :)

7 years ago, when I interviewed a midwife for a hb w/Joshie, she was $1500.00. I'm not sure if that included the supplies or not. My dh balked at the idea of a hb so we had a hosp birth instead.

oh yeah, we are renting an aqua doula locally and it will be about $200. Our birth kit is going to be about $40, plus additional supplies we should have on hand....

Our midwife was willing to work out payments with us though...so we can space out what we need to pay. That helped alot.

around here it is about $3000

not covered by insurance

we have a jacuzzi if you wanted to come here ;) - ok I admit I'm just a birth junkie. Your kids and my kids could entertain each other

It is $2800 for us. There is an additional fee of $3 per mile mileage fee from the office to your home, and also a $50 fee for a birth kit. You also need to buy a handbook, but I don't know how much that runs as I bought mine over 5 years ago :) The doulas run 300-500 depending on the type of services you want. The midwives are willing to do a partial barter, but prefer to have you pay. I know of people that have done bartering before-someone built shelves and cabinets for them, lots of people work cleaning the office for partiial barter. I have had people tell me that they have gotten partial insurance coverage for homebirth services, but I tried two times in the past and didn't get any coverage at all. Insurance coverage for homebirth may be an urban myth in Ohio where homebirth isn't even legally recognized :)

Last birth was $3500 out of pocket for everything. Except the actual birth, which they missed by an hour.

First two hbs were totally covered by our insurance.

:eek: REally, Laurie? Did you UC it?

i had aviva jill romm (the author/midwife/herbalist) as my midwife with daniel. her fee was $2200 plus a lab (um, $50?) and birth kit (she had it custom made at cascade...i think $70 shipped).

:eek: REally, Laurie? Did you UC it?


lol...aviva (for all her acclaim and fame) missed my birth by almost half an hour...and she lived less than that amount of time from my house and had known for 14 hours that i was in labor.

i UC'd. i had to explain to my husband each step of the way what to do and how to do it (i was on my knees so i couldn't do it)...including a double looped cord. to this day he still turns red when the subject comes up. he was pretty hot over it.

thank goodness i'm a birth nut and have been studying it for years ;)

ETA that baby was my only posterior baby too. interesting birth, that one.

What Juliebelle said.

ETA: I paid more like $2500, but Julie would probably know the current rates better than I would. :D

What Juliebelle said.

ETA: I paid more like $2500, but Julie would probably know the current rates better than I would. :D


debbie was that much??? :drop:

I paid $2000 for my homebirth in April. I did care with my OB through 18 wks, but only did 2 visits with her. One at 2 weeks for blood work, another at 18wks for ultrasound. My insurance covered all of my OB care.

A doula around here runs from $100 to $350

We are paying $2500, all out of pocket, for all the prenatal, the birth and 3 post partum visits, and them baby checks every two weeks for the first six weeks. HTH!

We were planning a homebirth (ended up losing the pregnancy) and we would have paid about $4,000 in Florida for all prenatal appts, labwork, delivery, and postnatal care.

i had a hospital birth with a midwife with Finn with the really great humana insurance plan and have paid almost $1500 out of pocket here in ga... 3 grand suddenly isnt that much more

If you aren't opposed to Medicaid, they do cover homebirth in certain states. However, I don't know which states these might be, sorry.

If you don't want to deal with them, then I think the idea of a barter is a wonderful idea! Good luck! :hippy:

mine was $2,500 plus some extras here and there. we were very lucky and our insurance reimbursed us for most of it.

i think many midwives are willing to barter too.

I have no idea of the cost Meeshi because where I live Midwives and their supplies are covered by the province (part of our taxes) so I didn't have to pay anything for my homebirth, but I wanted to offer some YAY MEESHI support vibes :D

Tammy

uc is free :smirk:

my first with Cooper, almost 7yrs ago, was $1200. With Curran it was $3600 Out of pocket both times. Well worth every penny. :thumbsup: The only lingering dissappointment is that I birth so quickly, neither mw was with me longer than 10 minutes before I gave birth...which always made me think I should have just UC'd.

we bartered w/ our first HB mw so I'm not really sure how much actual $ we paid her.

our second and third HBs were $1700 b/c we live 4 hours from the mw. this birth will end up costing us a little less b/c we'll be moving closer to where she lives in the spring.

as for doula services...my doula was free! she and I took the training together back in 2000 and we've been to each other's births ever since. for this babe a friend who is a massage therapist is coming to stay with us for the birth so I'll have a wonderful support there....she gives a rockin' pre-natal massage!

at home you are usually way more supported w/ a HB mw so you could really get away w/ having a good, supportive friend be your labor companion. another option is to find local doulas-in-training. most will not charge for their 3 certifying births. the bonus for you is that they are still relatively fresh from their trainings and are eager to try all the tricks of the trade.

uc is free :smirk:

yeah,that! :)

For my first and second babies we used a CNM. I can't remember how much the first one was, the second one was $2500 ish if I remember correctly.
We used a direct entry midwife for my 3rd and 4th babies. She was $1200 for my third baby and $1500 for the fourth. The birth kit was $50.

ETA: all except my third birth were totally covered by insurance. The third would have been too, but I didn't know we could file a claim because direct entry midwives are illegal in my state. My midwife gets a good number of the births she attends covered somehow though.

Meeshi,
I dont know for sure since I UC'd most of my births and dont remember the ones I did pay for.
But Jennifer Creel was only going to charge me I think $1000 to come here and birth.
It would have been more with bloodwork and maybe some other things...but $1000 for the actual birth I think. She is one of the best mw in the area.

debbie was that much??? :drop:

Uh, yeah. She's good, eminently qualified, well-known. And she, you know, shows up at the births. :joker:

We are ridiculously lucky with our midwife. She and her apprentices (all three attend births and appointments) only charge $600 which is basically their cost of supplies etc.. Mine was a waterbirth and that covered the tub too. On the other hand she is dh's mother's best friend and a relative. She also only takes family and referrals and is a lay midwife. She also accepts some barter and she gave us half the value of Lorelei's birth as a wedding present so we were blessed all around.

Meeshi, my last two homebirths have been very recent and both were $2000 plus birth kit. My MW just raised her rate to 2600. This includes all prenatal visits and well baby till six weeks. That being said we're well part the six week mark and I just saw my MW and she didn't charge me. Our insurance doesn't reimburse us. We considered moving to Jacksonville, FL and I interviewed a MW there and it would have been over 3000, but insurance would have covered it in Fl. It's well worth the $$ IMO.

Thanks for all of the information! I guess it really varies from place to place.

I am also wondering, when I was pg with Kaya I had to go to a bazillion prenatal visits. Do those who homebirth, or even UC often do less prenatal visits?

My doula this time is $250. I did have a postpartum doula after my first son, but insurance paid for that completely.

my last 2 were UC, so free other than the various things I had to pick up (that we still use sometimesLOL) I got the pool this time from freecycle (yay!) so we'll be trying again for waterROTFL (last 2 ~various things prevented it from actually happeningLOL)
With Cierra, I did do prenatal care up to 26 weeks (after 3 "high-risk" pregnancies, till I had a duh moment and wondered why I was wasting 2 hours to go and they weigh me, tell me things look good, heres the HB, see you next monthLOL) then with Hunter and this one I didn't do anything different than be aware of what's going on within and knowing if something was off or whatever. At the end of Hunter I did check BP (free at the grocery storeLOL) just b/c I was pretty swollen at then end, but it was just hot (mid-July baby in NM, plus our altitude) Hmmm, everything else I stopped doing awhile ago. AFP, Glucose, etc...
Good luck!!

Many fewer visits. I saw my MW at 3 months, then once a month till the last month, when we went to every week - or maybe it was every other. I don't remember driving there all that much. One home visit at the last month, too, so she could check where supplies were, etc.

Midwives rock.

When I was pregnant last year, we had decided on a freestanding birth center with midwife for the delivery. Without any complications, the fee was going to be $5000. I believe that the midwives who do homebirths in my area said they charge about $3000, and you must supply your own birthing kit. Both of these figures are out of pocket (we didn't have insurance that would have covered this). In both cases, there was a substantial discount if you paid in full by your 7th month--I think with the birth center it was a 20% (or $1000) discount.

Good luck!

Tara

I saw my midwife for the first time at just over 3 months along.. I saw her every month and then in the last two months it increased to once every two weeks (although I booked for about three i think), and then it should have been once a week but I went about every other week if I recall correctly.... it was a long bus ride just to hear we're doing great :D

Tammy

debbie was that much??? :drop:
yeppers

GOOGLE: unassisted childbirth.

GOOGLE: unassisted prenatal care.

(aka by most of us ucers as PRENATAL SCARE)

My midwife was 2500 (now she is 3000) which includes all prenatal care (no vaginal exams) which last from 30 minutes to 1 hour throughout the whole pregnancy, more at the end to every week the last 4-6 weeks. The birth and six weeks of close postpartum care and newborn care are included. There is no milage fee or whatnot added to that. The waterbirth tub was free as V who owns waterbirthresources was the apprentice and I was poor. The doula was free because I am a doula and they are some of my best freinds *LOL*

We bought our supplies and herbs for the birth from www.inhishands.com and they come prepackaged for you and labeled, which is great! There are a couple of really great online resources for birth supplies. I really like where we go though.

Doula's here in Minnesota range anywhere from 400-600 depending on experience, although you could find one that would attend you at home for much much less. It is a rare treat and wonderful opportunity to grow as a doula when you get to see birth in its natural state. I have been a doula for five years and charge 550.00, just to put it into perspective.

My mw was $900 including the aquadoula for the whole shebang. Then, I am in El Paso in one of the biggest DM hotspots. ;) Insurance didn't cover any. I wish she was still here so I could recommend her to local women, but she moved elsewhere.

A doula runs about $500 here, but she and her assistant provided most of the services I would have expected from a doula (perineal massage, massage when I asked, reflexology at my appts, and walking over 4 miles with me during labor). I was blessed with her. :heart:

My mw was $900 including the aquadoula for the whole shebang. Then, I am in El Paso in one of the biggest DM hotspots. ;) Insurance didn't cover any. I wish she was still here so I could recommend her to local women, but she moved elsewhere.

My SIL went through MW training in El Paso 8 years ago, she loved it!! She lives in Ontario thoughLOL jsut came for the training. :)
(we were at Ft Bliss~ my mom is in Canutillo and sis is in El Paso, too!)

With Curran it was $3600 Out of pocket both times. Well worth every penny. :thumbsup: .

How many times did you have to birth that child?

In Ky, I paid 1500, out of pocket for 2 births (lay midwives) plus About $30 for the kit. They came to me for the prenatals, etc!!! That was awesome.

This time, in TN, it is $2300 plus birth kit but our aweful insurance won't pay for a bit of it even though she is a CNM. If I wanted to do testing or if it were necessary (us, diabetes, etc), that would cost extra too. I have to drive 45 minutes to prenatals cause she didnt' want to have to charge for driving/gas prices in her fee. She and her assistant do come to my house on occasion just to make sure they know how to get here. I started seeing her around 3 months, once a month until about 32 weeks and then bi-weekly for a few and then weekly. No vaginals or anything else that I do not want. She is a CNM and before that was a midwife in a hospital and has a lot of ideas about leaving the mom to do the birthing so really she is here for support which I am comfortable with because of my long hard labors. I would consider UC if it were not for that (and I always get a "lip" on my cervix which slows things down).

Meeshi I think you should just fly homebirthin and I out. She is an awesome doula and studying to be a midwife. I can cook but trust me you don't want me there for the birth. :)

Hey Meeshi Mama :)

My friend in Ithaca had a homebirth and it was paid for by medicaid (I think that is what the NY state insurance is called). I'm sure it is easy to google up the qualifications.

I would be your doula for 0 dollars, if only I was closer! If you do choose a homebirth, I would chose your closest girlfriend and have her be your doula.

I'm so excited for you- whatever you chose, I'm there for you!

I wish I felt comfortable having a uc, I just didn't in the end with my j incision. :(

Homebirths around here run around $1800 for a CPM.

Doulas are normally around $300-$500.

I'm so glad you started this thread - I need to get on the phone with my insurance about a homebirth as it will be a deciding factor - but from what I've been told, in FL they have to cover at least a birth center. Guess I need to start doing more research.

Thanks again for all of the info. I never thought Medicaid would cover homebirths, wow! But, I am not sure if we qualify for that anymore.

yeppers

Debbie P? I talked to her for my pg in 2003, but obviously it didn't pan out. I hope that if I ever have another that I can go with her.