New Leaf Midwifery is dedicated to quality compassionate care that serves you as you go through this incredible journey to birthing and parenting your child. We have supported many families over the years, in each unique home. We are excited to welcome you in!
I'm here to support you through pregnancy, to birth and beyond.
The New Leaf midwifery care services
01
True prenatal care occurs between prenatal visits, as you care for your body and growing baby. The midwife’s role is of a guide. Our visits are a resource in your process of growth: to inspire, to carve out a moment and help you trust the transformation that is occurring in you physically and on deeper levels.
We nurture bonding and connection and welcome partners and kids to be present at any prenatal visits, helping kids learn midwifery skills as they connect to their new sibling. Getting to know you as an individual and family is part of the most rewarding aspects of midwifery.
During each visit, Jen will assess your vitals, your growing uterus and your baby’s health. Each appointment offers plenty of time to answer questions, introduce new concepts, discuss information that’s pertinent to inform choices, and laugh and tell stories. Standard and advanced lab testing is offered as part of this care and integrated in a shared decision making model. Clients can choose what is best suited to their situation within safety and preference. We follow a natural approach, first offering herbal, homeopathic, or diet suggestions and moving to traditional western approaches as needed and desired.
Prenatal Care
02
As you enter labor, we adapt to your needs, supporting you as your find your rhythms, movements and inward strength to birth no matter what type of labor you’re given. In the comfort of your own environment, it is certainly easier to find your own rhythm, making it possible to birth naturally and drug free. For some, a midwife’s support may look more hands on: massage, emotional support and encouragement. For others, support may be staying in the background as you desire, simply guarding safety and monitoring you and your baby.
Home birth creates a foundation of trust: between the client and her midwife, and between the client and her own body all in the comforts of your own home. While there are inherent unknowns in the wildness of birth, home birth offers a reduction in unknowns because of this foundation of trust. The midwife brings her skill, intuition, experience, and midwifery supplies.
After birth, your baby is thoroughly evaluated from head to toe and your space cleaned. Jen and her assisting midwife will stay with you for an average of 2-5 hours post birth, making sure you are comfortable and have the resources and care you need. In everything we do, we focus on facilitating and protecting physiologic birth, placental delivery, and baby led breastfeeding. This is a sacred moment.
Labor & Birth
03
The transition - the time of becoming - is still at hand in the early weeks post birth. In this precious time, people might need extra support: holistic, integrated support.
Attentive follow-up care is given to the client and baby as a dyad - not separating one from the other. It is invaluable to treat you and your baby as a unit because many issues are intertwined and one needs to understand both together. You and your well baby are cared for at home with visits at 24-36 hours after birth and twice more before day 8.
All standard newborn testing is available at home such as newborn screening, hearing and oxygen screening. Care continues with visits at 2 weeks, 6 weeks and optional 4 week visit in between at the office.
Not every client needs as many visits but they are available and preventative for issues like postpartum depression. We continue to be on call for you 24/7 as needs arise.
Postpartum
01
The midwife’s role is that of a guide, offering information and respecting the family’s voices while being a guardian of safety. The natural process, when not routinely interrupted or pushed, often provides the best outcomes.
Certified Professional Midwives are trained, credentialed and licensed to practice as autonomous primary maternity care providers while working within a network of other maternity providers who can consult or collaborate as needed. Midwives provide attentive individualized care through pregnancy, birth and postpartum and well-newborn care through 6 weeks.
What is the midwifery model of care?
02
Homebirth provides a safe, intimate, empowering option for natural childbirth for those who are healthy and low-risk. Low-risk excludes situations such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, severe anemia unresolved from treatment, blood or clotting disorders, heart problems controlled by medication, and active infections such as HIV+ among others.
We can care for people having had a single previous transverse c-section under most circumstances. Most births occur without need for intervention because our bodies are well designed, wise and complex. Doctor Marsden Wagner, MD who served as the Director of Women’s and Children’s Health for the World Health Organization, believed "If you are one of the over 75% of all women with a normal pregnancy the safest birth attendant for you is a midwife".
Who is a good candidate for home birth?
03
The body knows how to give birth instinctively. It's a natural process and not an illness. Research supports people’s choice of home birth, demonstrating that the outcomes for low-risk births out of hospital and at home are as good as low-risk births in the hospital but with much less intervention.
To learn more about home birth safety, please scroll down to see key research papers on the topic of home birth safety and outcomes.
Is home birth safe?
04
Absolutely! Waterbirth is a gentle option to use for labor and birth that provides significant pain relief and relaxation. It can help you find your rhythm in labor.
At birth, the baby has a reflex that prevents the baby from taking in water as they travel from their amniotic fluid in utero to the water of the birth tub.
Once the baby is born, the baby’s head is brought up out of the water while keeping the body warm in the water.
Do you offer water birth?
05
Birth is generally less messy than you probably think — as we use plastic and disposable products to help contain the mess.
While you and your family rest after birth, the midwife team cleans up and leaves your house as we found it. We do everything, from starting laundry and emptying the birth tub to even taking out the trash!
What about the mess?
06
Many insurance plans will cover some portion of your care. New Leaf Midwifery is an "out-of-network provider" for all plans. Depending on your coverage including your out-of-network deductible and your individual plan benefits, our billing company will bill your insurance company and they may reimburse you for part of the upfront costs.
Parents often take advantage of their Health Savings Accounts or Flex Spending Accounts to pay for midwifery care. New Leaf Midwifery is unable to be a provider for CHP+ or Medicaid. A sliding scale fee schedule is available for those who qualify for Medicaid.
Do you take insurance?
07
Midwives are dedicated to attentively monitoring you and your baby throughout your pregnancy, birth and post partum. If health risks arise, midwives assess and manage many issues at home. As appropriate, some needs require consult with other medical professionals or transport to a hospital. Midwives carry stabilizing medications including: anti-bleeding medications, oxygen, IV’s and suturing. All neonatal Resuscitation and CPR certifications are kept current and emergent best practices are regularly reviewed.
During a transport to higher level care, the midwife remains with you, supporting and advocating for you while the hospital staff assumes primary care. Research indicates that home birth is a safe birthing option for those who are low risk and healthy. (See previous FAQ about the safety of home birth).
What happens in an emergency?
Read More
Read the full study
"Home Birth: An Annotated Guide to the Literature," is a bibliography resource to assess the quality of the available evidence on planned home birth in response to the international debate on safety, access, ethics, autonomy or resource allocation with respect to birth place.
guide to the research
Read More
Read the full study
Janssen et al interpreted the data of home births attended by a registered midwife in Canada as comparable outcomes to those who birthed in the hospital for those who were low-risk. "Very low and comparable rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital birth."
american homebirth study
Read the full study
Read More
Da Jonge et al. found no increased risk to birth at home in their nationwide study in the Netherlands. They concluded, "this study shows that planning a home birth does not increase the risks of perinatal mortality and severe perinatal morbidity among low-risk women."
netherlands study
Read More
Read the full study
Cheyney et al. concludes that birthing out of hospital and at home was a safe option for those who are low risk when she said, “Low‐risk women who planned midwife‐led home births experienced high rates of physiologic birth and low rates of intervention without an increase in adverse outcomes.”
Canadian study
The following is a list of key research papers comparing low risk births occurring at home vs. in the hospital showing comparable safety outcomes with much less intervention.
The Research on Home Birth
Read the full study
Cheyney et al. concludes that birthing out of hospital and at home was a safe option for those who are low risk when she said, “Low‐risk women who planned midwife‐led home births experienced high rates of physiologic birth and low rates of intervention without an increase in adverse outcomes.”
Canadian study
Read the full study
Da Jonge et al. found no increased risk to birth at home in their nationwide study in the Netherlands. They concluded, "this study shows that planning a home birth does not increase the risks of perinatal mortality and severe perinatal morbidity among low-risk women."
Netherlands study
Read the full study
Janssen et al interpreted the data of home births attended by a registered midwife in Canada as comparable outcomes to those who birthed in the hospital for those who were low-risk. "Very low and comparable rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital birth."
American Homebirth study
Read the full study
"Home Birth: An Annotated Guide to the Literature," is a bibliography resource to assess the quality of the available evidence on planned home birth in response to the international debate on safety, access, ethics, autonomy or resource allocation with respect to birth place.
Guide to the Research
Learn more
Midwifery is more than clinical assessment; we are there for the journey as it unfolds.
