At The California Birth Center, we know that you’ll always remember the birth of your baby — it is an intrinsic and integral part of your life, your partner’s life, and your baby’s life. You will cherish the first time you felt their tiny hand grasp your finger and the first time you nuzzled your baby’s velvety head and looked into their eyes. The natural birth of your child is an experience unlike any other and shouldn’t be rushed or unnecessarily clinical.

We know that midwifery care helps women have healthy pregnancies and natural births best, We also know that in situations where transfer of care is needed women have the extra care that they need afterward to process and heal from unexpected birth experience. We care for women and their newborns for the first six weeks after birth. Welcome to the Family!

Many insurance plans will cover our services. We can provide an estimate of your out-of-pocket cost by verifying your insurance benefits. Families can also use their FSAs or HSAs to cover our fee.

Health share plans such as Christian Healthcare Ministries, Medi-share, and Samaritan Ministries will cover your care here.

Labs and ultrasounds can be billed directly to your insurance, but you may owe a copay to your insurance company. We also have negotiated cash pay rates for labs and ultrasounds if you want to pay out-of-pocket.

Please complete our Intake Survey » and provide insurance information to get an individualized cost estimate from our CBC Billing team.

Unlike at a hospital birth, you will have a close and familiar relationship with your midwives, who will accompany you through your birth experience. All our routine midwifery care, including privacy, quiet, low-lighting, delayed cord clamping and minimal interventions for mother and baby, are geared to promote the natural process of birth and bonding. Your birth plan is our birth plan.

One of the biggest differences between a hospital birth and a birth at The California Birth Center, is that the mother-baby bonding is not only welcomed but also encouraged by us. We encourage continuous uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby…and partner too! Your baby will never leave your side as you spend time getting to know one another and initiating breastfeeding. When it is time, we perform the complete newborn examination alongside you and family.

Absolutely. We will help you make a seamless transition. All you need to do to transfer your care is make an appointment with us and then get a copy of your medical records from your previous provider by completing a Medical Records Release form available in our office. It’s that simple.

We are blessed to have many repeat clients that call us as soon as their pregnancy test is positive! Our schedule books up quickly and often several months in advance. However, it is important to us to leave room in our schedule for new clients but starting your care with us sooner rather than later is always best.

Out-of-hospital birth is as safe as, or safer than, a hospital birth for the majority of women. The Midwife Alliance of North America has several studies, articles, and printouts that you can share with your family and friends.

We only take care of low risk, normal families. According to California State Midwifery Law, we may only attend singleton births (no twins), baby must be head down at the time of birth (no planned breech births), births must occur between 37 – 42 weeks, and if there is a condition likely to negatively affect childbirth (like preeclampsia or placenta previa), we will refer or transfer to a physician.

We start with ensuring that clients are healthy when they begin care with us. Then throughout pregnancy we provide comprehensive prenatal visits, prenatal screening, plus you take good care of yourself to ensure that when you start labor at The California Birth Center you and your baby are healthy and well.

Finally, our midwives provide continuous support and care during labor and natural birth and make sure everyone stays healthy and well throughout labor at The California Birth Center. Our midwives are well trained and skilled in identifying and attending to certain birth complications such as postpartum hemorrhage and neonatal resuscitation, but our midwives will transfer families to the hospital during labor or in the immediate postpartum if the circumstances become outside of our policies or scope of practice. Recognizing what is normal, knowing how to keep it normal and identifying when the hospital is a better place to be is what makes midwifery care at the California Birth Center safe.

The majority of women are good candidates for birth center birth. We offer a complimentary tour and meeting with our Clinical Director to ensure that this would be a good option for you and your baby.

Our care includes well-baby care for the first six weeks after birth. We perform a complete newborn exam before you leave the birth center which includes weighing, measuring, listening to baby’s heart and lungs as well as sweet keepsake footprints! We offer ophthalmic ointment and Vitamin K (oral botanical and pharmaceutical grade injectable). We perform the Critical Congenital Cardiac Defect screening and the California Newborn Screen at the home visit. We have an audiologist from the Children’s Choice for Hearing and Talking do Newborn Hearing Screening clinics at the California Birth Center. With the exception of the Hepatitis B vaccine (which we cannot offer), we can provide all routine care for babies until they see their pediatrician for their two-month well baby visit.

We welcome women seeking VBAC’s! We offer midwifery care and birth services for healthy women who have had no more than one previous cesarean birth, and with an ultrasound documenting the placenta is not low-lying anterior. We require a copy of the operative report from the hospital where your cesarean birth occurred. There must also be at least 18 months spacing from cesarean birth to the next baby’s due date. For VBAC support and education go to ICAN-online.org and VBACfacts.com.

Absolutely! Many of our clients use water for labor and birth. We have private showers and deep soaking tubs in each of the birth suites. The buoyancy and warmth of the water help with relaxation, pain relief and ease of changing positions during labor. Many women laboring in the tub go on to give birth there. Mothers and babies love it. It’s rare that we can’t get the tub filled in time, but if you have had babies before and you are “coming in hot” we can start filling the tub when you are on your way in!

Yes, We get calls quite frequently from families that feel they cannot continue with their current plans and are seeking last-minute changes. This is often a result of childbirth education, moving to our area or because they are at the end of their pregnancy and being told they will need unnecessary interventions.

We evaluate prospective clients on a case-by-case basis. As long as you’ve been receiving prenatal care and are healthy and low-risk (meaning no high blood pressure, gestational diabetes or other pregnancy complications or health risks) and we can get all of your medical records, we are able to accept you into our care late in pregnancy.

We can order any lab work or ultrasound that you may need! Blood can be drawn by one of the California Birth Center midwives during your visit or ordered to be collected at a Quest lab near you. For women wanting ultrasound, we can order them at a variety of local ultrasound facilities.

We provide complete prenatal care as long as you and your baby remain healthy and low risk. If a situation outside our scope of practice arises, we will refer you to a physician covered by your insurance plan. Very few of our clients have required complete transfer of care due to risk factors.

Some of our clients who have HMO or EPO insurance plans will get concurrent care with in-network physicians to cover the cost of ultrasounds and lab work since those are not included in our fee. If you would prefer to have us order your labs and ultrasounds, we have affordable negotiated rates for lab work and some local ultrasound facilities have cash pay rates.

We absolutely LOVE having older siblings take part in your prenatal visits. Our “little helpers” can assist throughout the appointment by measuring mama’s belly, and listening to baby’s heartbeat. Family-centered births are welcomed based on the mother’s and children’s comfort level. We respectfully request that all family members who accompany you to the California Birth Center be healthy and well!

A doula (professional labor support) can be a wonderful extra support, especially during a longer labor, if its your first baby, to ensure that you will have extra labor support if you need to transfer to hospital, or for labor support at your home before you come to the birth center.

Most of our midwives are skilled in breastfeeding support from years of personal and professional experience. We believe that supporting a healthy breastfeeding relationship is a vital component of our midwifery care. We understand that preparing for breastfeeding before the birth of your child is of great importance when considering that your breastfeeding relationship will last several months to several years. We include a breastfeeding class for families to take together prenatally, educational materials to take home and a resource list of breastfeeding specialists in the area.

Although out-of-hospital birth is statistically safer, it does not guarantee a complication-free natural birth. We are highly skilled and trained to detect and manage many birth complications. We have all the necessary equipment and supplies including medications to control postpartum hemorrhage and equipment to resuscitate newborns, which preserves our capability to safely attend birth center births. We’ve discreetly tucked away necessary equipment such as oxygen, IV therapy, and medications. Deviations from normal that should not be managed out of the hospital often have early warning signs which permit ample time to transport to the hospital. In this uncommon instance that a transport does become necessary, we are a less than 10-minute drive to local hospitals. We call ahead and send records to ensure a smooth and safe transition into the hospital when needed.

We are committed to creating a community for women to feel confident and connected to families that share your birth and parenting philosophy. To support our CBC families, we have a social media network to give our clients a friendly environment to discuss pregnancy, birth, and parenting related questions. Please like our fan page on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and for past and current clients only, you may join our private Facebook interactive group. Once you are a part of the California Birth Center Family, you are welcome to join our Postpartum Support Group, park dates, and natural living events. We hope to offer more ways to connect in the coming year!