Birth Roots Community Midwifery

We acknowledge birth as TRANSFORMATIONAL, and we value our clients’ individual journeys by offering a model of care that is new in the Chicagoland area. As a practice, we strive to move away from the system of rank and hierarchy that oppresses traditional knowledge – and instead, midwife and birth mentor are coming together hand to hand in mutual respect to support pregnant clients and their families in a truly holistic way – body, mind and soul.

We are the ideal midwifery practice for clients seeking holistic, heart-centered, evidence-based, and trauma-informed prenatal care; home birth attendance; fertility, birth and wellness education; birth mentorship; family building support; and reproductive wellness and basic primary care. Our care is loving, professional, individualized, and equity-driven, and our clients enjoy access to the highest standards of midwifery care.

Prenatal and well person visits with the licensed midwife are at least an hour long and allow for relationship-building that helps promote the client’s empowerment in the birth process through cultivating informed choice and mutual trust. Midwife home visits for birth planning and postpartum care help build a team of support for birth preparation and recovery.

Birth Roots Means Empowered Decision-Making

The midwifery model of care celebrates reproductive and birth physiology, promotes holistic prevention of pregnancy and reproductive health problems, and recognizes that health is achieved through centering the whole person. Birth Roots works within this model as our team partners with our clients to build wellness and birth safety from the roots – not just in terms of the standard measures of outcomes but including the mental, emotional, and community spheres of health and wellbeing. Our team can also counsel clients on sleep, nutrition, stress management, joyful body movement, family planning methods that meet their needs, and natural comfort measures. We draw on physiology and a natural approach as much as possible, and count on medical testing, pharmacology, and interventions when necessary.

Birth Roots Is Holistic

One-on-one midwifery care is intimate. We offer hour-long routine office (reproductive health, well person, prenatal, and postpartum) visits and limit the number of clients that we accept, because every one of our clients deserves individualized midwife attention and support. We work to build and strengthen the kind of trust and comfort that supports the birth process, reproductive health journey, and smooth entrance to new parenthood. We meet our clients where they are and focus on their priorities, blending the safety of professional midwifery with loving support for our clients’ health needs and wellness values. We also recognize that there is nothing more intimate in birth than being invited into our clients’ homes for this sacred event in their lives. We bring reverence for the power of our clients’ bodies and minds as we bring our calm and professional presence to support your process and cultivate oxytocin and joy together.

Birth Roots is Personal

We believe that birth and intimate healthcare are deeply personal experiences, and we honor the varied reasons that clients seek care from home birth midwives. Regardless of the reason or background of our clients, Birth Roots is here to support birth and reproductive health with dignity. We provide respectful and supportive care to all clients that want to work with us, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, immigration status, body size, gender identity, sexual orientation, partner or marital status.

Birth Roots Is For Everyone

This practice recognizes that birth and reproductive health outcomes are not solely the result of the type of care that clients receive from a healthcare provider, and that social and environmental factors can influence clients’ experience with their bodies and in healthcare settings. We seek to build mutual trust with our clients as we find joy, resilience, and community support can make all the difference in helping our clients meet their goals. We embrace a Health at Every Size approach. We are accountable to the communities that we serve by sharing our outcomes data. We strive to partner with contractors and birth workers from marginalized communities and use our position to decolonize birth work.

Birth Roots Is Anti-Oppression

We recognize that many individuals have experienced trauma that can make having an embodied birth experience, as well as working with a healthcare provider, more challenging – including previous healthcare and birth trauma. We make space in our care for making clients feel safe and respected. We use the talk-before-touch consent model for any intimate care, and listen to our clients’ “no” for any physical touch or evaluation. We provide referrals to trauma-informed providers and practitioners as needed. We are here to listen, to support, and to empower.

Birth Roots Is for the Whole Reproductive Lifecycle

Care with the midwife can include addressing many primary care issues, including prescribing medications if needed. Between, before, and beyond pregnancy, the midwife is available for reproductive health (gynecology) and primary care/preventive healthcare. Annual wellness visits and visits for concerns-related care are available, to address anything from a vulvar or vaginal infection; STI screening or treatment; fertility concerns; and family planning needs (education/support on natural family planning or prescription methods), to name a few.

To be accepted to care as low risk, clients may not have a diagnosis of any major medical problems, including hypertension, diabetes, seizure disorders, severe and unmanaged mental health concerns, or history of any classical incision cesarean sections or other uterine surgeries. Additionally, Birth Roots is not accepting into care any clients pregnant with multiples. Other risk factors may arise in pregnancy that necessitate a change in the level of care and transfer to a hospital-based practice. That can include: placenta previa or low-lying placenta, gestational diabetes requiring medications, gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, preterm birth (before 37 weeks), major fetal congenital anomalies, fetal growth restriction, intrauterine fetal demise, and abnormalities in amniotic fluid volume.

We will publish all outcomes statistics after the practice has been operating for over year.

Education and Community

Childbirth education and education for planning your postpartum healing are available with the Birth Mentor. Individualized and occasional larger group classes may be scheduled.

Community Postpartum is our bimonthly support group for clients of Birth Roots and Our Healing Roots postpartum clients for the first year postpartum.