Minnesota Birth Center Blog

Well-Woman Care at Minnesota Birth Center

Even if you’re not pregnant, proactively taking care of your health should be of paramount importance. According to experts, every woman must have a yearly well-woman checkup.

What Happens During A Well-Woman Check-Up?

Well-woman care is focused on preventive care for women, rather than care for a specific disease or illness. It includes:

• A detailed history of your overall health during the past year, along with any notable changes or concerns you’d like to talk about
• An examination of the genitals and breasts 

Your health provider may suggest additional screening tests or treatment based on your history and physical exam. 

Some services we offer at the Minnesota Birth Center include:

• Pap smears
• UTI testing & treatment
• STI testing & treatment
• Treatment for period problems
• Treatment for painful sex
• Preconception counseling
• Birth control and family planning, including IUD placement
• Prescribing of certain medications

Importance of Well-Woman Care

The entire concept of well-woman visits is based on the idea that regular preventive care helps us deal with serious diseases and morbidity associated with them. Along with preventing disease, the importance of counseling regarding birth control, sexual health, and preconception care is immense in improving women’s reproductive health. Women who are counseled regarding reproductive health are better equipped to take care of themselves during pregnancy, menopause, and other physiological changes in their bodies.

Difference Between Well-Woman Care At a Birth Center and OB/GYN

At a birth center like the Minnesota Birth Center, we believe in making all aspects of your care, including well-woman visits, as comfortable for you as possible.

We have created a home-like environment for our clients at the birth center. You will be able to tell this the minute you step into our waiting rooms, which are designed to be comfortable and peaceful and avoid the clinical feeling of typical health care practices.

Our appointment times are longer because our checkups are more comprehensive. This is different from the usual OB/GYN appointments that seem to only last for 5 minutes before they’re calling in the next patient!

Overall, well-woman care at a birth center is aimed to be more personalized to each client by providing a close-to-home, comfortable environment. The aspects of care covered during this visit are pretty similar to what you would experience in a hospital setting, except that a licensed doctor might be able to offer certain surgical interventions that we can’t.

The Minnesota Birth Center accepts all major insurances for well-care visits. They include the following:

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Cigna
• Aetna
• Medica
• HealthPartners
• PreferredOne
• UCare
• UMR
• United Health Care. In addition, MBC is a participating provider with United for the VA Community Care Network program.

For clients with Medical Assistance, we are able to accept coverage via straight MA, BCBS-MA or UCare-MA. Regardless of your insurance company, be sure to call them ahead of time and make sure they cover well-woman care at the Minnesota Birth Center.

Call us today to book your well-woman visit with us! 

Why Freestanding Birth Centers are Safe

In the months leading up to your baby’s birth, you’ll be faced with dozens of different decisions to make. How you choose to deliver is one of the most important ones.

The two main ways women deliver are: conventional hospital birth and natural birth at a free-standing birth center. No one way is better than the other, and the final decision you make boils down to personal preference and whether you qualify for a natural birth or not.

However, should you choose to deliver at a free-standing birth center, you should know that it’s safe and encouraged for mothers that do not require immediate medical assistance.

How Is It Safe?

Before you choose to deliver at a free-standing birth center like the Minnesota Birth Center, we would first have a consultation with you to make sure you qualify for normal physiological birth and do not have any risk factors that would prevent you from doing so. 

Once you are accepted into our care, our highly qualified team of midwives and nurses will monitor your progress throughout your pregnancy to make sure you’re doing well and have a positive, safe birthing experience.

According to the latest research, women that choose to deliver at a free-standing birth center had the following positive outcomes:

• More chances of spontaneous vaginal delivery
• Better perineal integrity
• Lower risk for emergency C-section
• Satisfactory care during the labor

How Do We Make Sure You Have Safe Labor?

The Minnesota Birth Center has been licensed and accredited by the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers since 2012. Your care is provided by midwives and nurses. You’ll be happy to know that all our midwives are Certified Nurse Midwives, which are licensed healthcare professionals who specialize in women’s reproductive health and childbirth.

They are trained to handle all aspects of

• Prenatal care, including nutrition and screening for risk factors
• Childbirth
• Natal resuscitation 
• Postnatal care

Our team will look after you and make sure you are fully satisfied with all aspects of your care. You will also have access to consultations with Dr. Steve Calvin, a board-certified Ob/Gyn should you have any concerns regarding your or the baby’s health.

We also have our friends at the St.Paul fire department, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and United Hospital on board. So in case of any unforeseen complications, we can safely and efficiently transfer you to a hospital where you can receive the medical attention you require. Even if you have your baby at the hospital, we will continue to provide postpartum care for you and your baby should you choose to receive it.

If you have any other questions about normal physiological birth or the Minnesota Birth Center and our service, please refer to our FAQs or contact us. 

Birth Center Birth vs. Hospital Birth

You have to make a lot of decisions throughout your pregnancy, especially as labor draws near. From small decisions like picking out the color of the nursery to deciding how you want to give birth, there are numerous choices to be made! 

Deciding how to bring your little one into this world is one of those important decisions. You need to consider all aspects of health, experience, and comfort while making a final choice. Two of the most popular choices for giving birth are hospitals and birth centers. 

What Is a Birth Center?

A birth center, such as the Minnesota Birth Center, is designed to provide you with a home-like, natural birthing experience without medical or surgical interventions. Instead of Ob/Gyn care, birth centers like the Minnesota Birth Center have trained Certified Nurse Midwives, nurses, and doulas to assist you through your pregnancy and birth. 

The core emphasis is to support and assist the normal physiologic process of the birth of a healthy newborn. To achieve this, we use a number of natural techniques to ensure the labor progresses smoothly and the mother feels comfortable and healthy.

How Is It Different From a Hospital?

Here are some major differences between hospitals and birth centers:

• The rooms at a birth center are designed to be more comfortable and home-like, with comfortable beds, labor pools for water birth, private bathrooms, kitchenettes, and much more.. At a birth center, each family gets more individualized care and attention from their midwife because they take on a smaller amount of clients to deliver a personal experience.  
• You have the freedom to walk around, eat, and choose how you labor at a birth center while in most hospital settings you will have to follow their procedures.
• There is little to no use of medicines or medical support at birth centers, whereas hospitals have a standard protocol of medications and procedures. 

Why Would Someone Choose One Over The Other

If you have a healthy pregnancy with no risk factors, choosing a birth center to deliver might be preferable. However, if you have a high-risk pregnancy and have had eventful labor in the past, you might want to go to a hospital to ensure that you’re getting the medical care and monitoring you need. Hospitals are better equipped to handle emergency situations such as an emergent need for C-section, medicine, or blood transfusion. 

Pick What Is Best For You and Your Desired Birth

Having said all that, the final decision comes down to you, and we highly encourage that you go with the option YOU feel most comfortable and at peace with! If you want to learn more about birth at Minnesota Birth Center, send us a message!