A freestanding birth center is a healthcare facility designed to provide low-risk maternity care in a home-like environment. NBWC is staffed by Certified Professional Midwives and by Certified Nurse Midwives who are licensed in MN who are experienced in supporting natural, unmedicated childbirth.
NBWC has been carefully designed to feel like a home-away-from-home where low lights, birth tubs, queen beds and birth slings provide tools to use while our midwives encourage rest, food, hydration and position changes to help facilitate labor and delivery.
Our midwives care for low-risk expectant families. Midwives are the expert in normal pregnancies and our birth center is designed with the family in mind. A big focus for our team is developing relationships with our clients and helping to give advice and care to achieve the healthiest pregnancy and birth possible. If you have questions on if you are low risk, we would love to chat with you, just schedule a tour and we will answer your questions.
We have a team based approach to care so the quick answer is no, but stick around and we will explain why.
Our team does birth in pairs – there are 5 midwives you will get to know well in prep for your birth. We do bring an assistant to your birth as well who works closely with our team trained in NRP and CPR but even if you don’t know her, most moms don’t even notice her come in. One of the 5 primary care providers is your person and the assistant is the midwife’s person assisting her as needed.
We have a call rotation that is set for 24 hour shifts. Many times our midwives are on call 1-3 shifts in a row giving great continuity of care, but with some time off call we are able to plan our lives, go to the dentist, go on vacation or just know that we for sure get to attend social events with our families. This prevents burn-out and helps us stay fresh when we are called in to be with you for your important day.
You will see all of us throughout your pregnancy in clinic and with our charting system and birth plan notes we are able to stay in sync with what you are hoping for at your birth and you will know that our communication with each other makes your care our top priority.
There are two broad categories of midwives in the US:
Nurse midwives with the letters CNM who receive their training primarily in the hospital and mostly attend hospital births
Direct-entry midwives who primarily practice in out-of-hospital settings.
Among direct-entry midwives, some are certified (Certified Professional Midwives or CPMs) and some are licensed by their state (LMs or LTMs) and some choose not to be certified or licensed (in the state of MN licensure is optional at this time).
Part of our time together during prenatals will be spent with us explaining how to know the difference between pre-labor and labor and when and how to call the midwives. Our clients have direct access to our midwives and we will give advice for early labor and discuss together when it’s time to meet at the birth center. We have lots of experience with providing tools to keep clients home and comfortable for early labor and to the birth center in time to use our many tools to help facilitate labor. The ideal time to arrive at the birth center is in active labor to make sure the client doesn’t feel like a watched pot.
Birth centers are not mini-hospitals; your labor will never be induced or stimulated with oxytocin (Pitocin). Because of that we monitor baby with a waterproof doppler and one-on-one support from your midwife and not electronic fetal monitors. C-sections, instrumental deliveries are also not done at birth centers. But birth centers are equipped with IVs, oxygen, medication, and infant resuscitation equipment along with non-allopathic options and trained providers to keep both our clients and babies safe.
As your midwife team, we will check on you and your baby’s well being at every prenatal visit and if you are healthy during your pregnancy, you should be able to have a normal, uncomplicated birth. As midwives, we are trained to recognize signs of complications as they arise, and we carry supplies and equipment for handling the most common complications of childbirth, including but not limited to: hemorrhage, cord around the neck of the baby, shoulder dystocia, etc.
Together with our clients, we spend time talking about our transport plans to hospital should it be necessary prenatally so it is not a shock if it does need to happen. We are only 8 miles to one major hospital and 11 to another. Should we have to go to the hospital, we will absolutely go with you, get you settled with your new providers and make care plans for you individually.
Most of the time, when a transport is necessary, it isn’t an emergency situation, and we go in private cars (your midwife following you in her car) and we go to a hospital we have good relationships with the midwife groups to give you continued midwifery care just in a different setting. Of course if it is an emergency, we will call 911 and go to the nearest hospital in an ambulance.
You are in charge of this! We will help you plan for the support that will be right for you prenatally – encouraging you to bring only people who will give you the strength and encouragement you need to have the birth you dream about. We encourage our families to hire doulas, birth photographers, bring family members that help them, but also to use us midwives as a sounding board for the creation of their team. Our midwives are good at reading the room and clearing it when needed to help resetting energy as needed. We encourage our clients to bring family members to prenatal visits as well to meet the midwives to help everyone be as prepared as possible.
Yes! We have beautiful over-sized tubs in both birth rooms at the birth center designed by midwives and created by the same group who make “Birth Pool In A Box” pools that we have used for years in our home birth practice. We love water labor and births! The pain relief and relaxation offered by a simple pool of warm water is amazing!
No. Although some people feel they may not be able to finish the job without help, they do not realize the power of the body to achieve the awesome job of birthing a baby. A healthy body, good support and natural coping techniques are all discussed and encouraged through your prenatal care.
When you reach term it is interesting to see the level of confidence such work has accomplished and how prepared our families really are. Once labor begins, we work as a team to encourage, nurture and support you, providing one on one care until you have your baby. Having someone there who has gotten to know you over the course of your pregnancy is the key to being able to cope. No matter how often we hear ‘I can’t do it’, we know you can. We are there with you every step of the way.
Your reward is in holding a beautifully alert, drug-free baby in your arms and enjoying the triumph that is all yours, knowing that you have given your baby the very best start.
Birthing with us is different than in hospital where you need to know how to ask and advocate for your natural birth in many instances, not only do we know you want that but we encourage that and help you to achieve that.
Not yet but we are hard at work on this. We are working to get in network with all major carriers, the first we hope to hear from are: Health Partners, BCBS, Medical Assistance and Preferred One.
We do bill insurance currently just with out-of-network billing rates and have a great insurance biller that is experienced with working with midwives for families doing community birth.
We also accept medical cost sharing groups such as Samaritan Ministries and Christian Medi-Share.
For more information on billing and insurance, please visit our billing page here.
We specialize in the care of normal, healthy newborns and provide regular care for the first few weeks of your baby’s life. However, It is a good idea to have a care provider (family practice or pediatrician) set up ahead of time in case your baby needs some additional assessment or care in those first few weeks. We are able to do all the newborn screenings that are normally done in hospital including the bloodspot screen, CCHD and hearing screen.
This is a big difference between community birth and hospital birth. Because we are not a hospital we don’t keep families for as long as hospitals, there are many reasons for that but the main one is our families are healthy and prefer to get home while the energy is still high, get into their own beds and have our midwives come visit them in their home for the first week postpartum. This means that we only keep families for a few hours post delivery as long as both mom and baby are stable. We do a full newborn exam, make sure feeding is going well, the mom has been able to eat, drink, empty her bladder, bleeding is controlled and she is well. This process generally takes 2-4 hours postpartum. At first this may seem strange but in reality it is a gift to sleep uninterrupted with your little baby (with only your little baby to interrupt you!) as long as everyone is healthy and strong.
