Choosing a Homebirth Midwife
- River of Life Midwifery
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Deciding who will support you through your upcoming birth is a big deal. Here are some things you might want to consider as you seek out the right provider for you and your family.
Location and Travel Time
The first, and most obvious thing to consider when choosing a homebirth care provider is her location. Some midwifes will provide their service area to you on their website, but others you may have to ask. Especially if you live in a more remote area, travel time may vary, but, generally speaking, anything under an hour is a good service-range.
The reason why this is important is because the longer it takes a midwife to get to you, the more variables are present for when you alert her that you are in labor. When it takes over an hour for your midwife to arrive, you risk either notifying her too early -- which could have her arrive at your birth with lots of idle time -- or sometimes notifying her too late -- which could result in you delivering your baby alone before she gets there.
This is why most midwives prefer to serve clients that live in a radius of under an hour -- so they can easily pick up and come to your home when you need them most.
A second, but less important thing to factor in about location is where your midwife holds their prenatal and postpartum appointments. Many midwives do all of their care out of their clients' homes, traveling to you directly for each prenatal and postpartum appointment, but some midwives actually have offices that they use for these appointment types. If you hold a strong preference about whether your prenatal care is inside or outside of your home, that might be something to consider as you are choosing a homebirth midwife.
Spiritual Orientation
There are three major times in a person's life that are the most spiritually significant -- weddings, birth, and death. How we treat and orient toward these three major life events are intricately woven together with our worldviews, values, and relationship with God.
So when it comes to choosing a homebirth midwife, I would highly encourage you to ensure that your spiritual beliefs are in alignment with one another. Even if spiritual or religious things don't seem very important to you now, these perspectives tend to be a foundation that everything else flows from. So when hard moments, complications, or tension points arise, having a shared framework for life can be an incredibly valuable thing.
Don't be afraid to ask the midwives you are interviewing about their spiritual orientation! It is deeply important and a great piece of information to factor into your choice of provider for your upcoming birth.
Birth Philosophy
Simply because a midwife serves in an out-of-hospital setting does not automatically mean that you share the same values and perspective on how you want pregnancy and birth to go.
Before you interview any midwives, I encourage you to write down 10 things that are the most important to you about how you want your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum to go. From there, you can be sure to write down some questions for the midwives you meet with that will help you discern whether or not you are on the same page. It is okay if smaller issues come up later on that you don't agree upon, but when it comes to the major things, you will want to make sure you are seeing eye-to-eye.
Personality Types
When you envision your upcoming birth, what kind of support do you anticipate yourself needing? Are you a person who thrives well on "tough love"? Or do you need more compassionate, gentle encouragement when things get hard? Do you like a care provider to be someone who directs and counsels you? Or will you prefer someone who is more yielding to your personal requests and choices?
These are some questions to consider as you look to hire a midwife, because even if your spiritual outlook and birth philosophies are in alignment, a personality type can really make or break your experience of birth.
More often than not, birthing mothers don't remember the exact events or ways that their support people did for them during labor, but rather the way those people made them feel. Consider this as you interview midwives, looking to find a woman who meshes with your personality well.
Credentials
Lastly, I encourage you to consider the credentials that a midwife holds. There are many different types of midwives, ranging in length and type of training. Some midwives learn by experience or apprenticeship alone (lay midwives), some go through formal certification programs in order to be recognized by the state (Licensed Midwives & Certified Professional Midwives), and others have actually gone to medical school and served inside hospital settings before choosing to practice delivering babies in the home (Certified Nurse Midwives).
These can be valuable pieces of information for you to consider as you decide who would be best for your growing family at your upcoming birth, depending on your level of preference and specific pregnancy needs. In some cases, a midwife with a certain type of training over another might be preferential to another. If you want more information on this, check out our article about Doulas vs. Midwives where we break the different types of midwifery credentials down.
Overall, it is my prayer that you would find the absolute best possible care for your upcoming birth. Someone who will serve your family well during this beautiful and sacred time. You can check out a couple of resources below that might assist you in making the right choice.
If you'd like to discern whether or not River of Life Midwifery is the right fit for you and your family, please fill out the form using the button below so we can get connected! I look forward to meeting you!
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