TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) — Some pregnant women are left debating on whether to have a hospital birth or a home birth with a midwife amid fears surround COVID-19.
Kimberley Homer is a Tallahassee midwife who has received numerous phone calls along with seeing more pregnant women since the Coronavirus hit. The pandemic has also changed her practice.
"The visits are usually an hour long that you spend with the family in their home," explained Homer. "So, we've had to shorten those visits. And we're touching base more with the families via telephone and incorporating telehealth visits as well."
The first thing Homer evaluates is the reason why a family wants a home birth. "I do not want a family making a decision out of fear. Fear is the last conduit to make decisions."
Logan Viveiros is expecting. She said, "Around the second trimester, we really decided and settled on it, and it was right before the whole Coronavirus thing picked up."
Viveiros and her husband live in Valdosta and have chosen an at-home birth for their second child. "I've been actually doing a lot of reading and research and different things like that to try and prepare myself for the fact of, it is intense, and there's not medical intervention here."
While giving birth is natural no matter the setting, Viveiros wants the intimacy of a midwife.
"The care that you get with a midwife, it's intimate, it's one on one," explained Viveiros. "You really get to know that person. You're not a patient, you're a client. And they stay with you through the whole birth experience."
Homer adds that the midwifery model of care is centered around the mother, while the hospital model is centered around the provider.
