Contact Jennifer Lucas O'Briant, CPM, LM Below
Photography by Greyson Johnston
***Though home birth service availability may be limited, Columbia Midwifery does have open availability for birth consultant services and/or virtual monitrice. These visits may be in person if you are in The Columbia area, or virtually anywhere! Contact us today to set up an appointment.
Placenta Encapsulation Services available! Contact us today!
***COVID-19 and Availability Update.***
COVID was crazy if not devestating for all of us. We are honored that we were able to use our skills, business, and calling to serve our community during a great time of need. For a while at the peak of COVID panic, it seemed no one wanted to deliver in the hospital and no one wanted to deliver alone, which was the fear in the middle of constantly-changing hospital policies in the past years. However many of these restrictions have lifted, and not everyone is a good candidate for out-of-hospital birth. To keep home birth safe, one should be considered low risk, educate themselves, train on how to cope with natural labor, eat impeccably well, and exercise. Additionally, no one should be pushed into choosing a location out of fear, not even home birth. We are grateful for modern medicine, obstetrics, and for our hospitals that are working so hard right now. However, there have always been viruses in the hospitals. There has always been a great chance of surgical birth when choosing a hospital birth, and it has always been a possibility that surgery would take place without your partner. Please consider what has truly changed and what is the same. Home birth is beautiful, but it is not for everyone.
-Finding the midwife that is right for you is very important. We recommend hiring a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) for your home birth as they are the experts in out-of-hospital birth and they carry the national credential from The North American Registry of Midwives. In SC, in order to legally practice, a midwife must be licensed by SC DHEC. Both of these organizations have listings of their certified/licensed midwives. We also setting up an interview to see if we’re a good fit.
-We hope to offer it in the future, but at this time, Columbia Midwifery is unfortunately not a Medicaid Provider. There may be some home birth midwives that offer Medicaid coverage, but they are hard to find, so start calling today. If Medicaid is the absolute deciding factor on where you give birth, here are some options for you in relation to the Midlands: There are birth centers in the Charleston, Spartanburg, and Greenville areas that do take Medicaid and have either CPM or CNM midwives. Prisma Parkridge has a practice of Certified Nurse Midwives where you can deliver in hospital with a CNM as your provider. Prisma Health Richland is the Baby Friendly hospital of the area with the highest level of care for newborns and Maternal Fetal Medicine. USC School of Medicine has skilled physicians that may be supportive of VBAC and deliver at Prisma Health Richland. Many women do qualify for Medicaid and are still able to afford a homebirth. Even when paying out-of-pocket for your midwife, Medicaid is still helpful to pay for labs, ultrasounds, doctor’s visits, prescriptions, hospital care if necessary, etc.
-We are out-of-network with most insurances and do not file your insurance up front. We can, however give you a super-bill after the birth has taken place and the fee has been paid so you can try for reimbursement.
-Most Christian Health Plans and/or faith-based health co-ops cover us 100%!
-We encourage everyone to contact their legislators and let them know what a safe-haven home birth has been during a pandemic, and that Licensed Midwives and home birth SHOULD be easily covered by Medicaid and insurances. It is, after all, a fraction of the cost of hospital births that our tax dollars pay for.
-We also have availability as a birth consultant and/or virtual monitrice. These visits may be in person if you are in The Columbia area, or virtually anywhere! Contact us today to set up an appointment
-We DO have full availability for placenta encapsulation! We encourage you to contact us if you are interested in those services.
-We believe:
Black Lives Matter
No Human is Illegal
Love is Love
Women’s Rights are Human Rights
Science is Real
Water is Life
Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere
Thank you so much for contacting Columbia Midwifery, a branch of O'Baby Birth Services.
You may also call Jennifer O'Briant, CPM, LM at 803-341-5554