Hybrid Care

Hybrid care is for families who want the benefits of midwifery care as described above but want to ultimately birth in the hospital, for personal or medical reasons. For these families, I do regular prenatal appointments at home, and when labor begins we labor at home until we collectively decide when is the right time to go to the hospital for the birth. After the birth we continue with postpartum visits in the comfort of your home as we normally would.

What is the difference between this care and hiring a doula for the birth? The main difference is families will be getting all of the benefits of midwifery care during our appointments including monitoring your baby’s growth prenatally, discussing and giving suggestions to optimize your health and wellness during our visits, monitoring your baby’s heart rate during labor with a Doppler, doing vaginal exams as needed during labor, baby weight checks after the birth in correlation with breast/chest feeding consultation, assessing your healing, etc. We work collaboratively with other practitioners to optimize yours and your baby’s health and well-being. This could mean postpartum home visits for the first 2-3 weeks to allow for maximum rest and healing. Adding in pediatric appointments after that time will mean there will be fewer disruptions to bonding and family adjustments caused by running around to outside appointments, and you will continue to have home visits from us through 6 weeks after the birth.

The peace of mind and support you provided throughout the process was so special to us. We really couldn’t have done it without you! I am so grateful to have learned so much about midwifery and how it can truly compliment a hospital experience. -HC