Services
Women have always helped women give birth. Traditionally, laboring women were surrounded by family members and experienced women from the community. As childbirth became the domain of the medical profession and women moved into hospitals for birth, women lost their vital connection to one another during this time of intense physical, emotional and spiritual work.
Bring birth back, birth at home, naturally!
Midwives are trained, skilled, and licensed practitioners providing the mother with individualized education, prenatal care, continuous assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support.
Prenatal Care
Hour-long prenatal visits on average provide us plenty of time together to explore any current concerns and answer your questions thoroughly. Prenatal visits include reviewing your initial lab work, taking your vitals such as blood pressure, pulse, weight, and listening to your baby’s heart beat. We’ll also feel with our hands (palpation) and measure the growth of your baby from the outside, from visit to visit. These timeless tried and true skills have been all but abandoned in the medical model. Low tech, high touch! There is plenty of time for pregnancy complaints to be heard and they can often be helped with effective tips as well as nutritional suggestions and support. Prenatal care may take place in the privacy of your home or in our comfortable, private office space.
Labor & Birth at Home
Home birth is a wonderful, safe option for families with healthy pregnancies, whether this is your first time giving birth or your eighth. American River Midwifery’s holistic home birth services include comprehensive prenatal, labor, birth, and postpartum care. Prenatal visits follow the usual standard schedule, taking place every 4 weeks until the 30th week of pregnancy, every 2 weeks until the 36th week, and weekly until labor begins. Included are 4 postpartum visits to check-up on the health of both mother and baby through the first 6 weeks after your baby’s birth.
“Thank you very much for your support during our pregnancy & birth. Your passion and trust in the “normal” yet miraculous birth process is contagious!”
Postpartum Care
The postpartum care your midwife provides is just as important as prenatal care. It is ensuring that mother and baby are thriving, breastfeeding is going well, and that no complications develop after the birth. It is the personal continuation of our holistic midwifery care, even after your baby is born. This includes early jaundice screening, care of baby’s umbilical cord, vitals (temperature, heart rate, respiratory health), and metabolic newborn screening (PKU heel prick) . All done in the comfort of home! Also included is your baby’s birth certificate paperwork for your County’s vital statistics office and social security card paperwork. Plus, commemorative Born At Home certificate with footprints are done on the day following your birth.
Waterbirth
Water birth is the process of giving birth safely in a tub of fresh warm water. For some women floating in the water is nature’s epidural. Many women love to labor in water and give birth right there in their tub or portable pool set up in a private spot of their choice. Babies love waterbirth and seamlessly transition and breathe when lifted out of the water. Laboring in water is naturally relaxing. When a woman in labor relaxes in a warm deep bath, free from gravity’s pull on her body, with sensory stimulation reduced, her body is less likely to secrete stress-related hormones. This allows her body to produce the pain inhibitors-endorphins-that ease labor discomfort and greatly enhance the effectiveness of her contractions. A laboring woman who is able to relax physically, is able to relax mentally as well. American River Midwifery supports labor and birth in water and offers a deluxe birth pool kit for rent.
VBAC
(Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)
Home birth after cesarean (HBAC) is an increasingly popular option. Women and families know that they will be less subject to constant monitoring and interference at home. It is thought by some that this may lead to a higher chance of successful, safer vaginal birth. This may be because the overuse of interventions in hospital births introduces risks or the home environment promotes problem-free labors. Excellent outcomes with much lower intervention rates are achieved at home births.
Hypnofertility or Fertility Hypnosis
Have you or someone you know been diagnosed with "unexplained infertility"? Tired of being told to stop trying so hard and let it happen? Does the word "relax" just make you cringe? How do you get to that special place that makes conception a natural, likely occurrence?
HypnoFertility does more than just relax you while in session. You’ll learn to easily find that relaxed state that opens the door to conception whether natural or medically assisted.
Whatever odds they've given you this program will increase them. Choose to give yourself the best possible chance to have a baby. Expensive medical procedures like IVF are often limited or not covered at all by insurance. Recent studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Woman's Association and the journal Fertility and Sterility indicate that "infertile" women using hypnosis techniques have a 42% to 55% conception rate as compared to 20% with IVF alone.
HypnoFertility Sessions Take It Above and Beyond Chance! Realize Your Dream.
