Covid-19 Information for Families

The current outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is a source of stress and anxiety for many pregnant and new families.  We hope to be a source of useful information as you make care decisions and reduce risk for you and your family.

Reducing Your Risk

It is important for all pregnant and postpartum families to practice social distancing and stay home except for essential needs at this time to reduce their risk of infection and to prevent the possibility of infecting their midwife and other families served by the their midwife.  It is important to let your midwife know right away if you or a family members have symptoms of COVID-19 including cough, fever, or difficulty breathing.

Midwives are changing the way we provide care to protect you and all the families we serve.  Your midwife may do some of your visits by telephone or video and may wear gloves and masks during all direct care, especially at births.  The number of support people at your birth may be limited to reduce exposure.  These changes are necessary to keep the families midwives serve safe since people without COVID-19 symptoms can spread the virus before they know they are sick.  This is an important time to seek support and plan for they ways pregnancy, birth, and postpartum may be different than you expected.  Here are a few useful resources:

Build Your Nest postpartum planning during a pandemic
Evidence Based Birth Covid-19 Resources
Baby Blues Connection Postpartum Support

Deciding Where to Give Birth

If you are considering switching from a planned hospital birth to a home birth or birth center birth (also known as community birth) because of COVID-19 concerns there are a few important things to know:

• Community birth with a midwife is safe for healthy, low-risk pregnancies
• Community birth is not a good option for people who had health conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes before pregnancy
• Community birth is not a good option for people with pregnancy complications
• Planning a community birth doesn’t mean you won’t go to the hospital.  Between 12-20% of planned community births transfer to the hospital if labor doesn’t progress normally or there are complications
• Planning a community birth means being prepared for natural (unmedicated) labor.  Epidurals and pain medications are not available in the home or birth center
• Hospitals in Oregon are taking many precautions to protect families from COVID-19 exposure and hospital birth is an appropriate choice for many families
• OHP does cover community birth but it requires a prior authorization request by 34 weeks
• Private insurance may or may not cover community birth depending on the plan and the midwife

If you are considering switching to a home birth or a birth center birth we recommend you interview several midwives and talk with your current provider about your plan so she/he will be prepared to transfer records and discuss your care with the new midwife.  Midwives and hospital providers work together to provide safe care.