Home Birth

Labor and Birth at Home

Our primary role during labor and birth is to monitor the well-being of the birthing person and the baby. We do this by monitoring your vitals, listening to the baby’s heart tones, and keeping you fed and hydrated. We are there to give information, answer questions, suggest different positions, fill the birth tub, rub backs and shoulders, offer food and water, remind you to pee, listen to baby’s heartbeat, take walks with you, hold you while you squat, put a cool cloth on your forehead, and offer kind supportive words.  We also read and knit inconspicuously in the corner as you and your baby navigate the throes of labor.

When your baby arrives, we continue to monitor the well-being of both you and your baby, all while your little one is in your arms. This is a time for you and your family to bond and snuggle. In addition to keeping a close eye on you and your baby during the immediate postpartum, we also clean up, start a load of laundry and make sure you are fed. We conduct a thorough head-to-toe newborn exam including weight, length and head circumference.  We also fill out the birth certificate, offer newborn procedures with full informed choice, and give you a keepsake birth certificate with footprints. We help you get started with breastfeeding and when everyone is stable, we tuck you all into bed.

Rosehip midwives place the safety and well being of the birthing person and baby above all. Sometimes, this means that we need to transfer care. We work hard to cultivate relationships with hospital based providers so that hospital transports are as smooth as possible. We take time during prenatal care to discuss why a transfer of care might be necessary and what that transfer might look like so that everyone feels prepared. In the event of a transport, we provide continuity of care as your advocate and support person and continue all of your postpartum care.

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Why have a home birth?

  • Labor and birth take place in YOUR space, environment, and personal microbiome
  • Fewer interventions
  • Freedom to move around and choose positions during labor and birth
  • No routine IVs or external fetal monitors that restrict movement
  • Freedom to eat and drink to maintain energy for the hard work of labor
  • Choice of who is with you – your family, friends, caregivers, children
  • Continuity of care – the midwives you have built a relationship with prenatally are also your birth team!
  • Labor is allowed to progress at its own unique pace
  • Choice of laboring and/or birthing in water
  • Baby stays with you 
  • The umbilical cord is not clamped until after the birth of the placenta.
  • Family togetherness – siblings are welcome
  • Breastfeeding is supported