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Low-Risk
Pregnancies—Free Consultation Visit |
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Low-Risk Pregnancies—Free Consultation Visit
If we decide we want to pursue a midwife/client
relationship, the initial visit will take 1½ to 2 hours, as I take a
comprehensive look at the client, and her medical and gynecological history. I will also perform a blood draw at that time. The follow-up prenatal
visits last 30-45 minutes, although if a client needs more time with me,
all she has to do is ask. I do mainly home births, although I have access to birth centers in Grand Prairie (near Dallas) and Peaster (near Weatherford), if you desire to have a birth center birth. I provide complete prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care. My clients see me every 4 weeks until week 30, then every 2 weeks until week 36, then every week until birth. I will make a home visit to your home around week 34 so that I can be sure of the location of your house and also check on your birth supplies.
I give
All of this is included in my fee, which is $2500. I may have to adjust the fee to cover extra miles if you are further than 50 miles from me. I require a $300 non-refundable deposit on the first visit, and you may work out payments for the balance of the fee. Not included in the fee is an ultrasound, which most of the time I don't consider to be necessary in a low-risk pregnancy. I do sometimes recommend an ultrasound, so my clients need to be prepared in case I consider one is necessary in their pregnancy. I have access to ultrasound technicians that take my clients in Grand Prairie, Hurst, or Dallas, and their fee is $100, which is very reasonable. They each have more than 20 years of experience. You will also be responsible to purchase some supplies for the birth, which will run approximately $40, depending on the supplies that you already have at home. If you choose to rent my birth pool, the fee for that is $100.
If you transfer care to another midwife or doctor before
your 36th week, I will
give you a partial refund if it is due you, or I will send you a
statement for any fees that you still owe me. After 36 weeks, even if
you end up having the baby at a hospital, there will be no refund. The
reason for this is that if I take a client to the hospital, it ends up
being more work for me, rather than less. And going to the hospital is
always stressful, for the midwife as well as for the client.
I will be happy to check on your insurance to see if they will cover the
birth, but I require my fee to be paid up front. After the birth
of the baby, I will be happy to give you an itemized statement so that
you may file the insurance. Most insurance companies are realizing
the wisdom of covering home birth, as it is a safe and economical
alternative for the majority of people. Usually, midwife clients do not have a backup physician. Mostly this is because the physicians are unwilling to take the "liability" risk because of clauses in their malpractice insurance.
If, during labor, I feel that you need to go to the hospital for any reason, I will make a call to the closest hospital to alert the Labor & Delivery nurses that we are headed that way, and to let them know what the situation is. Usually I go with the client and her husband to the hospital by car. If an ambulance is necessary, then I call the ambulance and follow it to the hospital.
At
all times I will stay with you until the baby is born. If you would like to speak with some of my former clients, I have many references that would be more than happy to share their experience with you. Most of the clients that I serve stay in touch with me.
The
relationship that forms between a midwife and her clients is much more
than professional!
We have three children whom we enjoy immensely. Natalie is attending and enjoying Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, and Emily is attending Howard Payne University in Brownwood. Both are honor students. They are adjusting very well to college life—after being completely home schooled. Our son Timothy is at home for one more year—and he’s enjoying just having one mom instead of three—now that his sisters are in college! He has been accepted to LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.
When I’m at a birth, either Timothy or Jackie gets to do the milking — yippee! We enjoy using the goat milk for drinking, cooking, and making cheese and ice cream. I also enjoy music, and love to play the piano, whether it’s at church, or at home, or anywhere else. I've been playing the piano since I was eight years old. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the lessons!
My parents and grandparents are
Texans, but I'm a transplant, having been born and grown up in Mexico. This means that I'm completely
bilingual with Spanish and English, and love using both languages to
serve my community. I help translate our church
services into Spanish. I learned Spanish the easy way, as a young child, and I love
to tell people that I didn’t know that English was my first language
until I was 12 years old!
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A Certified Professional Midwife
such as myself only cares for low-risk pregnancies so I have to determine whether a client
fits that criterion. I have an objective list of diseases or
circumstances that might "risk out" a potential client. And the prospective client has the right to
determine if I'm a "fit" for her. So I encourage all potential clients
to meet me for a free consultation visit to see if we want to pursue
things further.
continuous childbirth education with
prenatal visits throughout the prenatal period. I do all the normal
blood draws/lab work. Every prenatal visit I will check your weight,
blood pressure, pulse, fundal height, urine, and fetal heart tones. Every so often I will check your temperature and your iron level, and if
I see a need, I will do a blood glucose check. I focus on nutrition,
exercise, and a healthy lifestyle so that you can have the optimal
pregnancy and a very healthy baby. Most of the time, I see my clients at my home in De Leon. I have,
however, done some home visits. There will be an extra charge for these situations.
After the birth, I will come to your
home at 1-2 days postpartum to check on you and the baby and to do the
first heel stick — called a newborn screen — on the baby. This is called a newborn screen and
it tests for 27 very serious metabolic diseases. Then I will see
you again at 2 weeks — to do a second newborn screen — then at 10-12 weeks postpartum. The last checkup will include a PAP smear, if you so desire.
I
sometimes practice with an apprentice, who will be with me for most of the
prenatal appointments so that you feel very comfortable with both of us
when time
comes for your labor and birth. If I do not have an apprentice at
the time, I will always have an assistant at your birth. My
apprentices are midwifery students, and the way they learn midwifery
skills is through practice. This is the way
all midwives have learned their skills.
If during the course of the
pregnancy, I feel that you need to see a physician, I will discuss this
with you, and then you will make an appointment with the doctor of
your choice. In pregnancy this is most often for things such as
bladder/kidney infections, etc. If you don’t know which doctor to use, I
will help refer you to one.
I'm very happily married to my
husband of 21 years — Jackie. He is my best friend.
We
have a small herd of Nubian dairy goats that live just behind our home. I milk them every morning
or evening. They are more like pets than anything else—and each of them has a name and a collar. That’s Elsie with me in the
picture.