Glow midwives feel strongly that holistic home birth prenatal care takes skill, warmth, time, and a good listening ear.  We look forward to spending a full hour with you at each visit, which gives us plenty of time for developing a trusting relationship, as well as attending to the clinical components of prenatal care. A typical prenatal visit includes assessing maternal vitals, hearing the baby’s heartbeat with a fetoscope or doppler, palpation to determine the baby’s position, and other screening measures to ensure that the pregnancy is progressing normally and there are no signs of complications.

We may offer suggestions for easing common pregnancy discomforts, and provide education about nutrition, vitamin supplementation, the use of herbs and homeopathy, bodywork, and exercise. We provide balanced information about genetic screening options, gestational diabetes screening, GBS testing and newborn procedures, and honor your right to make an informed choice about your care. Our midwives are highly skilled in doing blood draws, cultures, and other lab work as needed at the cottage clinic. Partners are always welcome, and the henhouse with our four chickens is a favorite place siblings love to visit.

In the final weeks of pregnancy we spend a generous amount of time helping you and your partner prepare for the special work of labor and birth — demonstrating positions, exploring pain coping techniques, and teaching about the physiological process of birthing through a kind of “birth rehearsal”.  We create a safe space for processing and sharing whatever feelings arise, which often include fear, anxiety, excitement, and curiosity, to name a few. Growing a baby and becoming a parent (even for the second or third time) is a life-changing experience, and we consider the emotional support we offer to be a fundamental part of holistic home birth prenatal care.  It is deeply rewarding when our clients tell us how much they look forward to every prenatal visit, because we hope the experience is nurturing, informative, empowering and even fun!