I spoke with the head of my fellowship program this morning and he said that he and my advisor talked about my pregnancy all day yesterday and are both eager to help me make this work. He assured me my advisor would be in touch with me soon and he gave me all sorts of advice about ways to lighten my load and space things out and traps grad students fall into that suck up all their time. I was aware that both of these men have two year old children and I thought that maybe this would work to my advantage. Indeed it did. He said "Both Paul and I are at a perfect place in life to help you at this time. Paul said yesterday, 'If this happened three or four years ago I don't know that I would have been so understanding.' And I concurred." Well, Alleluia!
This is SO the right place for me.
And I spent a bit of time today on the phone with my insurance company trying to figure out what is and is not covered and it was looking more and more like a hospital birth might be my only option, but... I've been swapping e-mails all day with students at Vanderbilt now and students that are on their way to Vanderbilt. And one of the current students offered to help us newbies in any way so I asked if she knew anything about birth centers or home birth midwives in the Nashville area and she wrote back to say that she had a good friend in the nursing program at Vandy who might be able to help out. That friend replied quickly and connected me to an instructor of hers who responded by saying:
i know plenty of
out-of-hospital birth providers in this town, and would love the
opportunity to help a mom find one. looking forward to it!
enjoy your summer, and keep in touch :)
Woohoo!
Course the insurance won't cover a home birth... can I afford it anyhow? We'll see.
6 comments:
Make sure you double check what your insurance covers. I think in most states, if midwives are liscened, like they are in TN, then insurance has to cover them at the same rate as OB's. It's at least worth asking the midwives you talk to - and remember, home/birth center births are dramatically less expensive than hospital - with C my total pre-natal, labor, birth costs were about $5000 - M's OB/hospital bills were $18000 or so. With M I also had a lay midwife (planned a homebirth but needed to transfer) and I think her global fee was $1500 - I spent maybe another $100 on supplies. Don't let money stop you from pursuing the birth you want - it can work!
So glad your school is being so supportive--that's wonderful!
Regarding the insurance: my sister-in-law just had a baby at a birthing center (somehow connected to a hospital). She has the same BOP insurance I assume you're dealing with. She was attended by a midwife for the whole pregnancy. And everything was covered. I don't know if it was the "connected to a hospital" thing that made the difference--of course it wasn't a home birth. But I'd say that's a ray of hope.
Hey! Our insurance didn't cover home births either, but we went through a process of having many, many conversations and entering a (very long, very painful) appeals process(for both labors), and they caved and paid! So it can be done if you're willing/able to do the work of letter writing and lots of phone calls. David and I would be more than happy to talk to you about all that.
And you probably already know that midwives are usually more than willing to help you make it happen. I'm with desert mama: decide what's best for you and K, then go for it!
glad to hear you are getting such good support from your professors. yay!
I've been away from the blogosphere for awhile, so I'm catching up. I am so glad that the folks at Vandy are being so great! Yay!
Praising God for all the good people sharing the journey and supporting you. Have no doubt that God will continue to provide and guide!
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