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-The last few weeks, dealing with COVID-19
has been very, very busy for us.
-I see 20 people a year, maybe,
and I'm getting to that number now here in April.
-Our typical client load
is about 25 active clients at a time.
And as soon as the real set in --
that this is really happening
and this is really happening in the city of Detroit,
we were getting 25 new people a day.
-A lot of them had already planned to have their baby
in the hospital, and now, because of fear --
actual fear of being in the hospital with COVID-19,
just afraid that they may pick up the virus --
they have decided to consider having their baby either at home
or in our birth center.
-I go by Rockie. I'm from Detroit, Michigan.
And this is my first.
This is baby Jelani.
So I'm not that far.
We're seven months as of this week.
My hospital I was going to was Henry Ford,
and Henry Ford is known to have a very high rate
with the COVID-19 right now.
So I was already skeptical, but when it really hit,
I was like, "Oh, this is something
that's really going on in the hospitals.
I don't think I really want to be around that right now."
-I was never really concerned
about contracting the virus per se
and, like, getting really sick or having a risk for my newborn.
But I was really worried about hospital capacity,
because I was curious whether the delivery unit,
whether they would continue to actually work this way
or if they were going to reduce operations
in order to also accommodate more COVID patients.
-In the current context,
where hospital policies are becoming extremely restrictive
about who can attend births,
with what was happening in New York,
with many women having to give birth alone
and also more generally the sorts of policies
that are being promoted,
like women being urged to have early inductions at 39 weeks --
Those are things that I'm really uncomfortable with.
And so we decided to hire private midwives
and to seriously consider a home birth.
-I'm pretty much saying, "Well, your partner, yes.
Partner or partners -- totally."
And then maybe one support person.
Hospitals, on the other hand, don't have that luxury.
They have to make up rules that are safer for everyone.
They have a limited number of midwives and doctors, too.
And they have to make sure everybody stays safe.
-We have actually implemented
drive-through prenatal appointments.
That was something that they recommended
with the American Association of Birth Centers
is, like, we do a lot of things online.
So we are still getting to know our moms,
but we're doing things like necessary heart-tone checks.
We're listening to the baby. We're doing blood pressures.
We're doing blood work.
But we're doing that outside, in the car.
And if they have to come in, it's a real quick thing.
-The care we provide is very personalized.
And now we don't hug our clients,
you know, we're not shaking hands
and all of those things that were just so automatic
and just always happen.
And now we have to just sort of give virtual hugs
and things like that, which is very different.
-It's still a really underused profession.
Like, there's so much that we can do for healthy people.
And I'm hoping --
Of all of the things to come out of a pandemic,
you know, the one thing that might help
is being able to utilize our services more.
-We do have an insurance biller, and she does pretty well
at getting people reimbursed for their insurance.
But some of the major payers --
I don't know if I should mention names,
but we have a pretty large insurance company
here in Michigan that most people have,
and they refuse to pay for our professional services.
-Back in the '80s, early '90s, we were Medicaid providers.
And that situation has changed over the years,
and right now, we're no longer on those profiles,
and we are seeking to be back on some of those profiles.
So right now we're negotiating with Virginia Medicaid
for the birth center.
-This pregnancy has taught me how to want less
when it comes down to birthing.
And even this pandemic has taught me how to be more relaxed
and more calm,
because this something that's out of our control.
And I can sit back and relax,
'cause it's, "Oh, well, at least you can have your baby at home,
where you have access to everything,"
and you don't really have to go through the process
and get up and leave
and you can't be in a hospital for more than three days.
I can do everything in the presence of my home
and not have to worry about getting sick.