Frequently Asked Questions

Home birth is only a few hours of our journey together. The birth itself is a big exciting event for sure! It might be 3 hours or 36 hours together! AND What's so important in this model of care is that we spend many hours together ahead of the birth preparing and nurturing you as a Life-Giver, preparing to be a team, preparing you as parents-to-be for all that is to come. Then, after the birth, we spend around 10 more hours together, in your home, developing your relationship with your breastfeeding, your new body, your new baby, and helping you as a family to re-organize your systems around what an incredible change you're going through. It's truly an honor to walk with families through this once-in-a-lifetime transformation. We bring all the tools to save lives, give fluids, offer sutures, weigh babies - into your home! - along with all the tenderness, skill and grace you deserve as a birth giver giving our planet the most extraordinary gift. Everything is included. We're not going to charge you extra if you need aspirin, kleenex, or an extra visit or phone call, etc. The package is all-inclusive so you don't have to worry about any conflicts of interest. So what does it cost? Right now, our price is $8200 for the full package, $7800 if able to pay by the 3rd visit, and $6900 if you're military or have medi-cal insurance. Why does it cost so much? Well, when we did the math: This price values our work at a similar value as local hospital- based midwives (where YOU have to go to THEM, you don't have a single, dedicated on-call provider, just for you, you don't know who will be at your birth AND they don't stay with you as you labor.) The hospital systems don't provide 45 minute prenatal visits including body work, counseling, and tons of care. They don't provide in-home postpartum visits - yet it costs MORE THAN our extraordinary care. We did not include in our salary estimate: the additional benefits hospital workers have like health care coverage and employer- contributing retirement accounts. Of note: Hospital-based midwives work approximately 36 hours a week. We are on-call 24/7 for our clients. Living in San Diego, the most expensive city in the U.S., this price presumes each midwife is working approximately 46 hours a week (!), to pay for average-level rent/mortgage, health care, and normal living expenses. What if I can't afford it but I really really want this!? There are multiple options. We do not believe home births should be the right of the rich. But we also believe this work is valuable and deserves to be valued. So : Our Payment Plan - there is an option to pay as much as you are able by 36 weeks and put anything still due after 36 weeks on a payment plan. The additional service fee for this is a flat 7% added to the remaining balance at 36 weeks to cover our costs associated with the additional time required to follow up on these plans. We would set up a recurring credit card payment each month until the balance is paid. Minimum amount required by 36 weeks is $3600. The remainder would be paid at not less than $300/ month.

Hi! YES!! Normally, your payments should be completed by 36 weeks of pregnancy. We request an initial deposit of $1200 at your first visit. You can pay the remainder of the total fee in monthly payments (check, venmo, cash or credit card) or you can pay the balance off at the 36 week visit. If you cannot pay the complete fee by 36 weeks, then a payment plan on the remaining balance is available. The payment plan means: you would provide a monthly auto-draft, at no less than $250/ month, until the balance of the Midwifery Services Fee is paid. Adding a payment plan after 36 weeks would incur an additional 7% to the remaining balance on your account at 36 weeks. (So if you owe $2000 on your fee at 36 weeks, you would owe an additional $140 and this would be added to the amount owed.)

Birth Local is a 1 midwife, 1 student practice. The midwife is Phyllis "Kayti" Buehler, Licensed Midwife. Currently, Amy Osgood is a woman working to become a midwife in our practice. They will be a part of your prenatal, birth, and postpartum visits. You will get the chance to know them well during your care with Birth Local Midwifery.

On average we take 4 clients a month. So typically, Birth Local will have about 1 birth a week.

All community midwives bring lifesaving equipment, training and resources with us to your home birth. All the things you would expect to find in a labor and delivery unit at a hospital or birth center - resuscitation equipment for baby, medications to stop excessive bleeding, suturing materials in case you tear - we bring it all TO YOU. For more on this, see my video: What We Bring to A Birth on YouTube.

Statistically, 15% of first time birth givers and 5% of those who have had babies vaginally will have to transfer to a hospital for a more technical level of care from a planned community birth. For first time birthers, 10% of this 15% is non-emergent, for pain relief and rest. The other 5% of transfers (first time and subsequent births) are for medical necessities. This could include non urgent medical conditions, such as meconium in the amniotic fluid, concerning decelerations in the baby's heart rate, or lack of progress. Other medical emergencies requiring transfer would be hemorrhage uncontrolled by the 4 medications we bring, or a baby who is not breathing well on their own. For pain relief or other non urgent medical conditions, such as meconium in the amniotic fluid, we take private vehicles. Your partner will drive you. If we need to move quickly and urgently, an ambulance call is made. ​ Under normal circumstances, our goal is that one of the midwives will transfer with a family into the hospital as a doula, to provide continuity between birthing environments and help you navigate the options newly available to you in a hospital environment. We generally stay with or near you through the birth, until you are nursing your baby and you're settled in well. HOWEVER, there are sometimes unforseen circumstances, such as if we had another family who needed our support as their Primary Maternity Care providers. Also, sometimes since Covid, birth support people have been significantly restricted by hospital policies and the restrictions make it not feasible to stay with you while also having other clients to attend and a higher level of potential for Covid exposure in a large healthcare facility. For these reasons. we cannot, unfortunately, guarantee we will accompany you into the hospital. It's always a good idea to have a doula as they WOULD accompany you, as you wish. We transfer to whichever hospital makes sense based on your home's location and insurance. San Diego hospitals are generally very inclusive and we have good relationships and we can transfer smoothly. We resume your postpartum care when you return home as normal.

YES!! We LOVE and use Spinning Babies in office visits and throughout your birth as needed. We are Spinning Babies Enthusiasts. This technique is so valuable for its ability to help babies turn and head on out!