Has anyone on Tricare ever had a homebirth? If you got Tricare to cover it, how did you do it?

I want to have a homebirth and if I can't have that, I want a midwife and not an OB. It looks like Wilmington Health disbanded their midwifery services recently, Naval is full and OMH makes no mention of midwives on their website. I did find Olivia Marshburn of Hampstead, NC. I called her and she accepts Tricare Standard. If I switch, I am unable to go back to Prime for 12 months. Should I be worried about this? If I get sick and visit my in-network doctor, would I be required to pay a copay?

I don't want to hear anyone's horror stories about homebirth and why it's "dangerous". I'm healthy and not high risk. I don't want to deliver in a hospital and be hooked up to a bunch of stuff, only checked on by a nurse every hour, restricted to the bed, forced to deliver on my back with the possibility of surgery or an episiotomy. 

Olivia's website 

I'm fairly sure it's illegal in NC to have a homebirth attended by a midwife, but you might want to Google to be sure. The laws here are backwards. I think the nearest birthing center is near Raleigh, which is not ideal, you'd drive almost 3 hours once you went into labor.


I was on Standard for my pregnancy, and stayed off Prime the whole year. My copays weren't ridiculous at all. Tricare covers 80%, you pay 20%, or something like that. 

Link 

I'm healthy and not high risk.

You may be healthy, but that doesn't mean your baby will be born healthy and not need any intervention. 

I love Olivia,she is a wonderful midwife. She was at naval before she went into private practice. I know people who have home birthed in nc but the laws are odd. 

As long as it is a certified nurse midwife it is legal.
there have been a lot of change pertaining to homebirths and midwives in the last 2 yrs . 

Goose I am a huge homebirth advocate and getting ready to start my Doula training soon
PM me if you'd like to chat also mothering.com forums is a great resource for you. 

As long as it is a certified nurse midwife it is legal.

Nope.

Link

it has been illegal to do so with the help of a midwife in North Carolina since 1983. As most women aren’t willing to give birth unassisted, home birth is not an option for them.

I don't understand it, I think it's dumb, but NC is backward with a lot of their legislation. 

http://www.ncleg.net/documentsites/committees/JLOCHHS/Handouts%20and%20Minutes/November%2013,%202012/2012-11-13_NCFOM-LOCHHS.pdf

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/06/07/2120989/new-policy-grants-grace-period.html 

Irregardless of your plans. You still have to have a physician to oversee the midwife. Tricare Prime does not cover home births. All CNMs deliver that are covered by Tricare deliver at the hospital.
Here is a listing of the most services used for you.

http://www.inbloombirthservices.com/localresources.html 

Next time you see an ambulance talk with the paramedic. There are plenty of risk factors invoked in your delivery that go beyond if you are healthy and not high risk. I'm sure you have looked into all that.

I don't blame you for wanting to do something your own way and I'm not 100% on hospitals either. Hope everything goes well 

That stuf scares me. My mom wanted my sister (her 5th child) to b e delivered at home. Turned out that she had a foot and hand down and they both would have died if she didn't change her mind when she was in labor. She had a c section.

I would do a birthing center but I couldn't do the home thing. 

I spoke with a friend of mine who is a certified midwife in NC that said as long as the midwife has a physician backup they can do home births. 

Tricare will cover a CNM but not a CPM. 

As long as it is a certified nurse midwife it is legal

THIS!

Not to mention, a "midwife" that isn't a CNM isn't the best idea. It's someone whose taken a few classes, to say they can deliver babies. You want someone who knows what they are looking for, someone who is a professional with a license and a medical background so that IF things go south, they know when to send you to a hospital for interventions. Home births are great, but they need to be attended to by the right person. 

as long as the midwife has a physician backup they can do home births. 

and this. 

Goose- did you ever get answers? I'm looking into it now but feel like i'm going in circles lol. What did you end up doing? 

The best way to avoid the hospital is to not get pregnant. 

The best way to avoid the hospital is to not get pregnant.

True story. 

Try to find a birthing center. Tricare will cover it 80% out of network 85% in network on standard. It's the closest you can get to a covered home delivery.
I was going to do that this time but my placenta is low and posterior and they don't know if it will end up being placenta previa or not so no midwife outside of a hospital will take me because of the risk. *tears* 

Midwives were around in antiquity, but our laws are backwards? C'mon man!

We have evolved into hospitals and birthing centers, a million things can go wrong at home.

It's your baby. 

Honestly, and I used to feel the way you did.. we didn't evolve into hospitals. If you look into the history of giving birth as a whole especially what was happening and has happened since women started birthing in hospitals, it's tragic. Medical intervention is, at time, necessary. And yes, there are risks in birthing at home but if everything is normal, there are far greater risks in birthing at a hospital. The C-section rate in America is astronomical.
Our prenatal care is at a point that you are watched from darn near the moment of conceptions and problems can be caught early. You know if you are a good candidate for birthing at home or not very early on. Im 15 weeks and I already know I am not a good candidate for a birth outside of a hospital.
Add to it that 99% of hospitals only allow birthing while lying down on your back. This is not natural. This increases episiotomies.
Women were made to give birth. They weren't made to do it with all the crap they do it with now. It's all convenience and usually on the side of the doctor, not the patient. 

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