You want to hire a midwife/birth attendant/home birth OB, whoever you chose to support you during your pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Step one: Find the perfect birth attendant for you and then hire them.
We do this work because we want to see a shift in our culture around birth. We want to remind women of their power. We want to take back birth and put it in the hands of the women and out of the hands of the patriarchal system. We do this work because it’s in our blood, it’s our calling. And we also have to support ourselves and our families. Birth work is not a hobby. It took serious dedication, training, time commitments, physical and emotional energy to be readied to serve clients. We work so incredibly hard for our communities and the families that we serve.
We carve time out of our lives for our clients. We literally create our schedule around our birthing mamas. We’ve gone to school, apprenticed, received huge amounts of training….all of which have cost us so much money and energy to come to this work. While it can be hard to talk about money, especially being in a position to ask folks for money…..IT’S CRUCIAL. My ENERGY is VALUABLE. My time is worth an IMMENSE amount. It’s important that our clients recognize us for what we bring to the table and to compensate us for that.
I can’t support my life as a birth attendant without being paid for the work that I do. I’m not going to be broke and spend countless hours in prenatal visits, all nighters supporting laboring mamas, time away from my daughter, sleeping half the day to make up for the all nighter. I am going to be well paid for this important work that I do. It is so important for us to be paid what we are worth and to support birthing mamas in our community. I have listed a few creative ways to pay for your birth attendant.
Finance Your Birth
Perhaps you are only able to put down the deposit for your birth attendant and need to finance the rest, or you know that you won’t be able to pay off the balance to your birth attendant before your baby comes and need some ideas for a payment plan.
Paypal credit will allow you to do just that! If you cannot pay your birth attendant in full by the time your baby comes you can put it all on Paypal Credit and not pay interest if you pay off the balance within 6 months. Then with the credit you will pay off what you owe to the ones who gave you their sacred time.
Set up a recurring payment with Square! is another option. This will allow you to make a recurring payment to your birth attendant and you can even set it up as a draft that is taken every month and sent to them.
You can always set up a recurring payment through your bank. This way the amount is debited and sent to your birth attendant until the amount due is paid off. That way once the baby comes the $$ goes straight to them and you don’t have to think about a thing.
Sell Your Stuff
Have a yard sale, get on ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and pair down your stuff to help pay for your birth attendant. This way not only are you paying for an incredible service you are also making more space in your home for when baby arrives. Decluttering and purging is a form of mediation that feels so so good. I promise, I purge on the regular.
Ask For $$
If you are in a bind and need support there is absolutely no shame in asking others for $$ to pay for the most important time of your life. You would ask your family to help with your wedding??!! Why not your birth, which is way more important. Ask your family, ask your friends, borrow money from a coworker, and even consider crowd funding your birth! Your birth is such an important time and we all know that who you chose to support you in your journey is going to effect your outcome. It’s important to chose someone that is perfect for you and believes in you and then pay them! <3
Crowd funding has become increasingly popular for raising money for different life turn of events. GoFundMe is an excellent resource for funding your birth. I just googled Go Fund Me Home birth and there were pages and pages of families who have asked for generous support for their births and got it! GoFundMe is a wonderful platform for asking for funds without the asker required to give a gift in return. Or you can use another platform if you feel more comfortable giving a service or gift for anyone who donates to you. This one is called GoGetFunding.
These are my suggestions to you. I have personally used Go Get Funding before to help me pay for a training workshop and I was very pleased with how it turned out. My only other suggestion is to work on getting your head around the fact that it is our responsibility to pay those who serve us as our insurance options in this country mostly do not cover home births. Also a lot of providers chose not to accept insurance because of the hassle. The truth is that a lot of insurance companies don’t pay providers very well and the provider has to do all of the paperwork. The other truth is that anyone without a license cannot even accept insurance. Getting your head around the understanding that your paying your provider to support your through your journey is extremely important. Also with home birth providers we give continuity of care… which means that we are with you throughout your entire pregnancy, birth, & postpartum. You know who is going to be at your birth. You develop a relationship with us and we are the ones you trust you can count on. No other birth scenario (Hospital or Birth Center) provides women with continuity of care. Because those systems are not designed to do so. That is another huge part of what you are paying for. When you are grappling with your birth options and want to hire that amazing home birth midwife but wonder why it’s worth paying out of pocket for them really focus on what they will be offering you.
P.S if you have really fancy insurance you are still likely to pay more than a typical midwife ($4000) at the hospital because most of these newer policies have very high deductibles.
Another perspective. <3
Much Metta….. Sarah
****If you have any suggestions or questions about this article please send them my way.******