Planned Homebirths

Name:
Andrea Seelbach

Location:
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Story:

Our family moved to Grand Rapids, MI, from Germany in May 1999. We came here with 2 children who had been born at home under the assistance of a midmife or a midwife and a gynecologist. For my "American" pregnancies with my 3rd child and 4th child, I opted again for the services of a midwife and was very well taken care of during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. However, our health insurance provider (Blue Care Network of West Michigan) only covers the expenses for perinatal care provided by a doctor. As our midwife had some kind of a provider number with BCN, we eventually got (partly) reimbursed. There have been numerous studies showing the safety of planned homebirths assisted by trained midwives and they are a lot cheaper than the average hospital birth. I don't see why my health insurance leaves me the choice of whether or not to continue a pregnancy, while at the same time I am not free to choose where and with whom I want to give birth.