Pregnancy & Birth
Prenatal
​Our prenatal services include comprehensive health assessments, nutritional guidance, and emotional support to help you optimize your health during pregnancy. We see you for 30-60 minute office visits monthly until 28 weeks. Then, we will see you every 2 weeks until your 36-week home visit. After your home visit, we will see you at the office on a weekly basis until your baby is born. We offer all standard prenatal testing and screening, tailoring our recommendations to your unique needs. Our focus is on health promotion and avoiding preventable complications, while helping you prepare for your family-centered home birth experience.
Birth
We generally provide home birth services for people living within a one-hour radius of Casper. If you live outside that zone, please contact us to see if we are able to serve you. Our home birth services include 24/7 on-call access to your midwife from 37 weeks through the 6 week postpartum period. You will be able to reach the midwife with urgent concerns, as well as call us when you are in active labor and want us to come to your home for your baby's birth. Our fee also includes a birth assistant. Your birth assistant is a nurse or an experienced student midwife. Her role is to assist us with assessing vital signs, monitoring your baby's heart rate, charting, and cleaning up after the birth. She also be trained to assist the midwife with emergencies, and will have current certification in CPR and current status as a NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program) provider. We bring equipment and emergency medications, including those to prevent or control postpartum hemorrhage, IV fluids, antibiotics for Group B Strep prophylaxis (if needed and desired), lidocaine for suturing, oxygen, and the standard baby medications. No medications will be given to you or your baby without your consent. After your baby's birth, we do a full newborn assessment, where we weigh and measure your baby and monitor their vital signs. We monitor you and make sure your postpartum bleeding is within normal range and that you are recovering normally from the birth. We stay with you at your home for 2-4 hours and leave once you and your baby are stable and ready for a well-deserved nap.
Postpartum
Postpartum services include a home visit at 24-48 hours after your baby's birth, followed by office visits at 1-2 weeks postpartum and 4-6 weeks postpartum. At your home postpartum visit, we will do a full assessment of you and your baby. We will do the critical congenital heart defect (CCHD) screening, newborn dried bloodspot screening (aka "the PKU"), and a complete newborn exam, including vital signs and weight. We will assess breastfeeding progress and provide you with support as needed. Provided all is going well, we see you again in the office at 1-2 weeks postpartum for a follow up visit. At this visit, we examine both you and your baby, making sure everything is progressing normally and that your baby is growing as expected. At 4-6 weeks postpartum, we see you for your final postpartum visit. We will again evaluate both you and your baby. As with all of our care, this postpartum visit plan is our standard, but it can be customized to meet your unique needs.