Faqs

​All families birthing at The Bastrop Birthing Center will have their care provided by a Licensed Midwife and her midwifery team.They will oversee your prenatal care during the antepartum period, and continue with your postpartum care. You hire a midwife to keep you and your baby safe through your pregnancy, birth and postpartum journey. This job for us is not dependent on birth location. Your midwife will be with you from the start of your care until well after your birth experience to make sure you are taken care of every step of the way, no matter what!

If you belong to a  co-op sharing health insurance, you will usually be fully covered

We work with you to get maximum coverage by allowing you to sign up with an insurance biller that specializes in Birth Center births, helping to maximize coverage and minimize out of pocket expenses for you. (There is a nominal $500 fee)
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We accept most major insurances depending on your plan.
Due to the vast array of insurance programs, we discuss insurance concerns with our families on a personal basis.
Because insurance reimbursements vary widely, we ask all patients prepay before the birth and our insurance biller can submit a claim after delivery. 
Deposit and other co pay payments are required depending on your insurance.
We are unable to accept Medicaid at this time
Payment plans can be arranged to fit all families budgets as well as financing options to make it much easier for you to have care!

Your Midwife will be overseeing your entire pregnancy, labor, and delivery. You want her to be in her medical-state of mind. You want her objective, big-picture thinking, and fresh. You don’t her to be “doula-ing” you throughout labor, and exhausted when decisions have to be made. Ask any doula. Her job, while rewarding, is physical, emotional, and draining. One person should not be doing both. As professional Doulas, they are here to support you and be your advocate. They have learned specialized techniques to help women cope with the challenges of labor.  They work within an evidence-based standard of practice that has been medically proven to help improve the birth experience, decreasing the need for interventions, including cesareans, providing increased maternal and couple satisfaction, and improved bonding with your baby. Doulas don’t replace birth partners. Doulas work with couples ensuring the birth partner can participate and share in the birth experience at a more comfortable level. They share techniques to allow your partner to be able to deliver effective comfort measures throughout your labor.  And the best part is that we find the birth partner often feels more confident and equipped, with less partner fatigue, than couples going it alone.  Doulas provide support and TLC for them, too, because they know how important this experience is for both of you! And since a doula is with you until you deliver, you have the comfort of knowing you will never be alone when your birth partner needs to grab a bite to eat or catch a quick nap. 
However, your Doula and your entire birthing team, are very sensitive to your personal space as a couple, so during a quieter time in labor, we may step out for a few moments to allow you two to share some private time together as you await the arrival of your baby.

Many women choose to have family, friends or their other children attend their birth, and that’s great. It’s your birth…it’s your choice! We encourage you to choose support people who understand what is important to you during this special time and are comfortable with out of hospital birth. Because choosing who you allow into your birthing is a very important decision. Someone who may cause you to be shy or reserved could hinder your progress or not be the best to invite into your space. We welcome anyone you decide to support you, but recommend taking the decision very serious so you will be well supported and taken care of!

To promote your comfort in labor, we do not use fetal monitors that strap to your tummy. We want you to walk around and change position freely. We check the baby’s heartbeat periodically with a Doppler and this gives us the information we need. We strongly encourage you to take a childbirth class.
We want you to eat and drink while in labor.
• We can use IV’s in needed circumstances, but do not use them routinely because not every birthing person needs one at every birth.
• You are encouraged to bring any items you need for your comfort, candles, music and incense are very popular.
• We do not have an epidural service, but instead use natural methods stemming from complimentary therapies, such as massage, healing touch therapy, acupressure, aromatherapy.
• Laboring in the tub is also an option.
You may give birth in any position you choose, side-lying, standing, squatting, hands and knees, or in the water. You may have Dad receive the baby himself, or you may receive the baby into your own hands if you desire. In any event, the midwife will be there to assist. Immediately after birth, the baby goes to the breast, and Dad cuts the cord when it stops pulsing. Then the delivery of the placenta, however you prefer that to be managed and checks for any repairs. We do not do episiotomies routinely and our midwives are very good at helping you to stretch naturally, so any repairs they must make are usually superficial.
The same as with home birth, when women feel safe and comfortable, in a nurturing, loving setting, with the warmth and support family or friends, and with a Midwife they have built a trusting relationship with, women rarely need pain relief. But we don’t believe in suffering. If a woman needs to transfer for an epidural, we support her choice all the way. However, only about 8-10% of women chose to do so.
They know what to expect, and have taking our special classes, “Removing the Fear of the Unknown,” the preparation, combined with the relaxation that this environment provides, allows women to take their labor one contraction, or surge, at a time. 
We also utilize Integrative Medicine options and complementary modalities, including aromatherapy, massage, hydrotherapy, acupressure and homeopathic remedies in labor. A woman may also ask her Acupuncturist to come for a visit while in labor.
Knowing that the body is designed to respond to pleasure much more than pain, we utilize the varied senses to “run interference” for a woman in labor. Add that to the natural pain killers (endorphins) her body will produce in labor, it is completely do-able. And from the hands-on skills she learns in our class, she will already know this to be the case, not just have to take us at our word. She will have already experienced this first-hand, and that knowledge and confidence allow her to move forward toward calmly birthing her baby.
From sinking into our deep soaking tubs, enjoying in a nice massaging shower, or standing out doors on her own private terrace while relaxing on a birth ball or leaning on a birth swing, these combined with the emotional support that surrounds her, enables a woman to know “I can do this. I AM doing this!”

Some of the things The Bastrop Birth Center can offer that hospitals cannot are:
• Continuity of care: The people you see during your prenatal appointments are the people who will be at your birth. Most doctors work as an on call model in a practice with usually 5 or more providers, the provider who is on call for your birth is very often not the provider you wanted it to be. Or your provider may go off call in the time it takes you to deliver, leaving you with someone else to support you.
• We have an experienced staff dedicated to providing sensitive individualized care that honors the miracle of birth. Because we get to know you during your pregnancy, we are able to know what is important to you and how to better care for you
• Our Midwives are experts in out of hospital birth. So the experience, how to handle low risk mothers by not intervening and causing more problems then good, and having a solid transfer of care plan in place if an emergency arises is our specialties. We also practice in preventive medicine instead of treatment of medical conditions. We believe good prenatal care can catch most common emergencies before they arise and work hard with our clients to help them remain low risk instead of ignoring issues and treating the outcome like some providers may do.   
• In labor you will receive one-on-one care and support from your Midwife and/or Birth Assistant.
• Options – You choose how you birth, who will be present and in what atmosphere. More importantly, you always have the option to change your mind.
Our center is equipped with emergency medications and supplies in case the mother or newborn needs additional support at birth, and our midwives have these ready at every delivery. If we need to go to the hospital for additional support then we will!

Our goal is to try to prevent the need to transfer care in labor, but if it is no longer safe to be at the birthing center, for you or your baby, then we will make sure to get you the help you need! Our transfer rate remains low and we are hoping to keep it that way by keeping our patients healthy!
Here are some reasons a transfer might happen
1) Exhaustion due to not eating or drinking in labor. If a laboring client has low blood sugar, baby’s blood sugar can also be affected, resulting in breastfeeding issues (amazing how things turn around for the best when clients have nutritional supplementation during labor!)
2) Arrest of Dilation or Descent (labor not progressing, causing moms to become exhausted)
3) Prolonged Rupture of Membranes with no active labor
4) Thick Meconium (baby poop in amniotic fluid indicating possible distress to baby)
5) First natural birth and no (or insufficient) childbirth education causing mom to become scared or exhausted from lack of rest
6) Lack of Support in Early Labor- Consider a Doula!
7) Intervention not Available at the birthing center (such as epidural)
8) Abnormal Vital Signs for either laboring client or baby
9) Abnormal Fetal heart tones
10) COVID Positive at time of labor
11) Preterm or Post term (Less than 37 weeks or greater than 42 weeks)
12) EXCESSIVE Postpartum hemorrhage. (We carry all medications for routine Postpartum Hemorrhage).
Our transfer rate remains to be very low but we believe that in knowing common reasons for transfer in labor we can work to prevent them from happening!

Typically stay at the birth center for 2-4 hours after the birth. During that time, we look after you and your baby and provides detailed instruction and support. We will assist with breastfeeding and perform an initial examination for your newborn. Families may remain at the birth center for up to 8 hours after delivery if a longer recovery is needed.   
 
Following discharge, a midwife will see you and your baby at the birth center at 2-3 days after birth, at 2 weeks after the birth, and at 6 weeks. These visits include both postpartum care for you and newborn care for your baby. 

Certain medical conditions are not appropriate to manage outside of the hospital for pregnancy, labor, and birth. This does not occur frequently, but in order to ensure the highest safety standards for an out of hospital birth, here is a list of conditions that are not approved for delivery at the birth center. Some examples include: 
 

• Any hypertensive (high blood pressure) disorder prior to or during pregnancy 

• Pre-eclampsia in current pregnancy 

• Blood clotting disorders 

• Placenta Previa (placenta is over the cervix) 

• Uncontrolled chronic medical diseases 

• HIV, Hepatitis B or C, or Syphilis 

• Pre-existing diabetes or uncontrolled gestational diabetes

• History of more than cesarean section deliveries or one cesarean delivery with a vertical incision. 

• Breech presentation (baby not head-down) at term

Anyone who decides they would like to be informed or have a more personalized experience, as long as they are low risk in their pregnancy and continue with being so during their pregnancy. Good prenatal care is JUST AS important as who will be there when your baby is born. Good prenatal care can help to prevent many complications or help you find the right care if something does not go as planned.

Some women know they want to birth in a hospital, and some women know they want to avoid interventions or birth without the help of drugs or medications.
We know that no one gets pregnant hoping to have a bad experience!
 
So we are here to help!
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If you want to have your baby in a hospital but would like to avoid unnecessary intervention, receive pain medications or over all just have a better birth experience in the environment that you choose, getting a doula is your best bet!
Hiring a doula to care for you if you are having your baby in a hospital may be a great option for you to ensure great communication between you and your ob/gyn or hospital based midwife and to help you get the hands on support to help you through your birth and help your partner to help you!
If you are looking for a doula to support you at the hospital, we also offer amazing doula support!
 
 
If you would like to avoid interventions, avoid medications, receive hands on support or experience enough to know when to be hands on and when to be hands off, feel like you have had plenty of time to feel listened to by your care provider who really takes the time to get to know you. Then getting a midwife sounds right for you.
Because we are a smaller birthing center, you will know who your midwife is and unless there is an emergency, you wont have to have someone attend your birth that you do not know.
So spend all the time getting to know your birth team, because we are it!
If you desire the amazing and empowering experience of a natural birth, your chances of success at a birth center are a lot more favorable then in the hospital! Even the studies show that out of hospital birth reduces your risk of intervention, is perfectly safe for low risk women, but the birth stories you can find of women birthing at home or in a birthing center speaks for themselves!