Our Philosophy of Care

We view pregnancy and birth as normal, natural life-events that in most situations will proceed beautifully without intervention. We believe in birth as a family-centered experience, with the midwife guiding and supporting the process while enhancing the family's power of unity.

Prenatal Care

The path to an empowered pregnancy and birth is through informed choice. We provide information and resources to assist you in making informed decisions about every aspect of your pregnancy and birth, including extensive information about nutrition, exercise, prenatal testing, and newborn care. 

The safety and success of homebirth is in part owed to the relationship of trust and honesty between mom and midwife. We typically spend an hour with you during every prenatal visit, allowing ample time for all family members to feel comfortable and build a relationship with both the midwife  and assistant. We’ll monitor the health and well-being of both mom and baby, share information, and have plenty of time for questions. Visits occur monthly until 28 weeks, twice monthly until 36 weeks, and weekly until birth. If you are past your due date, visits occur more frequently.

Most prenatal visits are at our  office at 150 Shelton-McMurphey Blvd., Suite 102A in Eugene, where we also offer community resources, a lending library, and supplement sales. We will do a home visit at 36–37 weeks to get to know your space and to begin envisioning a birth in it.

“Colleen and Victoria created a judgment-free environment where we could ask all the silly first-time parent questions and make decisions we felt confident in.”

—McKenzie

Labor and Birth

A midwife will be in attendance throughout active labor. Whether you need steady physical and emotional support or prefer to labor in private, we’ll be there to monitor the natural process and guide as necessary. We encourage fathers/co-parents to take an active role and even catch their babies if they desire. We’ll remain in attendance approximately three hours after the birth, ensuring that you and baby are well and the entire family is settled.

It’s wonderful when siblings can share in a homebirth. If they have been prepared to understand the work of labor (and have a trusted companion by their side, if they’re young), they typically have a positive experience watching the new baby arrive.

Should complications occur for mom or baby, we carry emergency equipment and pharmaceuticals in addition to herbal and homeopathic remedies. While the intent is to birth at home, at times the safest place to be is the hospital. We do not see this as a failure, but simply as a change of venue — a means to a healthy outcome for all. We’ll remain by your side, providing support, guidance and knowledge until all are safely settled in. We’ll provide all postpartum care to you and your baby, including daily visits while you’re in the hospital.

“I remember thinking many times that it seemed so hard, too hard, and maybe I couldn’t do it. In those moments I would look at Colleen and see her complete confidence that I was capable, that it was a normal process, and that she had everything under control. She was a calm presence that supported my birth team, who in turn, supported me. ”

—McKenzie

Postpartum

Care during the postpartum period is essential to your recovery and long-term health. Support in the days and weeks following birth allow you and your baby to bond as well as develop a successful breastfeeding relationship. We will visit you at home on day one, day two, day four, and at two weeks, four weeks, and six weeks postpartum, providing complete well baby care and attending to the physical and emotional well-being of the entire family. And because we believe strongly in supporting women to return to an active life, we’ll provide instruction on pelvic floor strengthening and recovery.

While you’re in our care, we’re available 24 hours a day so you feel safe, supported, and honored during this exciting, unique, and life-changing time.

“[I appreciated] the breastfeeding support, having my daughter get her wellness screenings at home, having my physical and emotional health checked often, getting optimal referrals as needed, and listening to the conversations between my husband and our midwives those first couple weeks being fresh parents”

—Brittney

Why Choose Midwifery Care?

Midwife means with woman. Midwives are dedicated to spending time with women, providing the space women need to explore their strengths and fears, answer their questions, and build strong relationships.

National and Global Birth Trends

Throughout the industrialized world, countries recognize midwifery care as a superior way of birthing. In fact, the countries with the lowest infant mortality rates are those where over 70% of the births are attended by midwives, the majority of these at home or in free-standing birth centers. 

In 2007, British Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt called on the British government to “challenge the assumption that the safest place to give birth is in a hospital and that homebirth can be dangerous.” She advocates for a shift back to birth as a normal, non-medical event in the life of a woman. In 2014, Britain’s National Health Service advised healthy women that it was safer to have their babies at home, or in a birth center, than in a hospital. 

The World Health Organization and the American Public Health Association endorse out-of-hospital birth with a trained midwife as a reasonable alternative to the high-tech, high-cost, medicalized birth found in U.S. hospitals.

The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other nation in the world, yet ranks 51st in newborn mortality. In 50 other countries, babies have a greater likelihood of surviving their first year of life, including Israel, Greece, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

In 2005, the British Medical Journal published the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) 2000 study, the first-ever large-scale prospective study of the safety of homebirth in North America. This study illustrated that homebirth with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) is as safe as a low-risk hospital birth.

The Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health in 2014 published a study that again showed comparable rates of neonatal morbidity and mortality in homebirth compared to low-risk hospital birth, with fewer C-sections and greater overall satisfaction. 

Currently the U.S. C-section rate is 32.8%, whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 10–15% C-section rate as necessary, and the MANA study demonstrated a C-section rate of 5.2% with no change in neonatal mortality or morbidity. Despite the rising number of babies born by C-section, the United States has not lowered the neonatal mortality rate. Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that despite spending $98 billion on hospitalization of women for childbearing, the U.S. has doubled its maternal mortality rate in the past 25 years. 

The Midwifery Difference

Birth in a hospital often brings on stress and anxiety that can negatively affect the outcome. When a woman is exposed to bright lights, unnecessary activity, and strangers performing intimate exams, that can lead to the overproduction of stress hormones. That can inhibit the release of natural hormones, potentially slowing the progress of labor and intensifying pain. It is not uncommon for a woman's contractions to slow upon arrival at the hospital, which may lead to the use of pitocin, a synthetic form of oxytocin, which causes contractions. Pitocin has been associated with poor fetal heart rates — possibly due to the strength and frequency of the contractions it causes — and this apparent stress on the baby can lead to further interventions. Furthermore, the intensity of pitocin-induced contractions leaves some women seeking an epidural, which is associated with maternal fever and poor fetal heart rates, which may lead to more C-sections.

At home, birth is allowed to unfold as nature intended. When you feel safe in your home and not disturbed by unfamiliar hospital staff and procedures, the hormones of labor are fully capable of moving your labor along. 

In choosing a midwife-attended homebirth, you avoid unnecessary interventions and the complications that often result. When birthing at home, you take full responsibility for your own excellent health care, with a midwife at your side to guide and support the process and ensure the safety of you and your baby. 

At times it is prudent to transport to the hospital — and even benefit from some of the above-named interventions — but this occurs only in 15-20% of all planned homebirths. Most importantly, we make any decision to intervene together with you and your partner. We’ll fully explain the benefits and risks of any potential intervention, supporting your active participation in your birth care and obtaining your consent for everything we do that involves you and your baby. If time-sensitive action is needed, the solid relationship and trust between mother and midwife allow for swift, decisive care.

Midwife means with woman. Midwives are dedicated to spending time with women, providing the space women need to explore their strengths and fears, answer their questions, and build strong relationships. Midwives are patient, allowing labor and birth to proceed naturally, without strict timelines. Midwives are more comfortable with pregnancies that endure past their due dates; inductions for being late are very rare.

Babies, Bonding, and Breastfeeding

Homebirth strongly supports the development of the mother–infant bond. Indeed, midwives strive to protect this most intimate time, allowing for the creation and strengthening of the mother-baby dyad and unification of the entire family. Babies remain in constant contact with mom from the moment of birth. Any assistance provided to the baby is done on the bed next to you, where you may touch and speak to your baby and provide the sense of love and safety that your baby has known for nine months prior.

A growing body of evidence shows that immediately cutting the umbilical cord denies the new baby vital life blood. The blood remaining in the cord is the baby's and contains necessary oxygen for easing the transition to breathing on his own. In addition it has been shown that the iron in this blood is necessary for building an adequate store to prevent anemia in the first six months of life. Current hospital practice includes cutting the cord immediately upon delivery. At home, the cord is left intact, sometimes as long as several hours. Most typically it is cut shortly after the placenta delivers. Never do we cut the cord without parents' consent. This illustrates a midwife's respect for and trust in the physiologic process of birth and the wisdom inherent in it. Besides, not cutting the cord ensures that baby stays with mom!

Midwives believe in the right of every woman and baby to breastfeed. Midwives provide a great deal of support as the breastfeeding relationship develops. By allowing mom and baby to remain in constant contact in the hours after birth, midwives encourage babies to find the breast and initiate nursing by themselves, something they are innately driven to accomplish and that sets the stage for successful breastfeeding in the weeks to follow. Because midwives remain in attendance for several hours after birth and return several times in the first week, there is ample opportunity for breastfeeding support as needed.

Midwives are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in most cases without an answering service or other barriers to access. We’ll meet your needs in a timely fashion, often without you needing to leave the comfort of your home. 

If you are curious about the benefits of midwifery care and homebirth and are wondering if it is the right choice for you, contact us today. It could be the difference you’re looking for.