Starting a Midwifery Business

Starting a Midwifery Business

Starting your own midwifery practice is a leap of faith and a decision that you must think about a hundred or even a thousand times. Midwives play a vital role in the well-being of the woman and her baby. Establishing care in this manner leads us to prioritize creating a positive experience of care, promoting and contributing to the capability of women, securing attachments and bonds of love, and allowing joy. 

It enables midwives to think and see their role as practitioners differently from other health care practitioners within the health care system. The moment you decide to start your own practice, you will take boundless risks. It requires extreme commitment and persistence, as you may encounter adversities and challenges along the way, but surely the reward is exceptional. 

When starting a midwifery practice, one of the big decisions to make is what setting to deliver in. Do I want to offer home births, birth center deliveries, or hospital births? Do I want to offer a couple of setting options? To help you in the decision-making process you are doing, here are the different types of practice that you may want to know before you start your own midwifery practice. There are many midwifery businesses to start, but I will focus on the common three I speak with midwives all over the country to help start:

Home Birth Practice

Do you want to start out small and private? Home birth practice gives midwives the most autonomy possible but requires an extensive business background to be successful. A home birth practice is a birth that takes place in a residence rather than a hospital or birthing facility. Study shows that the ultimate goal of all maternity care professionals and parents is a safe birth and healthy outcome for women and their newborns regardless of the setting. Increasingly, women choose to give birth at home because they believe a home setting is a safe option. As a midwife, you will provide care independently in the home for healthy women during pregnancy, labor, and birth within the parameters of setting-specific, clinical practice guidelines. Midwifery care in any setting includes ongoing clinical assessments that inform risk evaluation and clinical decision making throughout pregnancy, labor, birth and the initial newborn and postpartum period. 

Birth Center Practice

Birth Centers is a health care facility for childbirth where care is provided in the midwifery and wellness model, it is freestanding, not a hospital. Birth centers are an integrated part of the health care system and are guided by principles of prevention, sensitivity, safety, and appropriate medical intervention and cost-effectiveness. The birth center respects and facilitates a woman’s right to make informed choices about her health care and her baby’s health care based on her values and beliefs. The woman’s family, as she defines it, is welcome to participate in the pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. 

Are you thinking about working towards accreditation? National accreditation is a prestigious licensure, but it does take a lot of time, money and expertise to get your policies and protocols up to national standards. Many states have regulation requirements that you should fully understand before creating a birth center facility. 

Hospital Practice

Traditional hospital births are still the most common option for birth. This means that the mother-to-be moves from a labor room to a delivery room and then, after the birth, to a semiprivate room, that’s how hospital birth works. There are many reasons why people plan a hospital birth with a midwife. Some patients are still more comfortable in a hospital setting and feel that the hospital is the safest option in case of emergency. As a midwife, you have plenty of options to continue your midwifery practice in a hospital settings. If you want to improve outcomes and lower cesarean rates with mothers, HIRE MIDWIVES! I’ve worked with large hospital practices, community based practices, and private practices with hospital privileges. I know that midwifery care can serve in any setting. I have helped midwifery practices improve revenue reimbursement, implement laborist models, and start midwifery model of care into their maternity system. 

Another thing you should consider is, if you’re ready. Being prepared will cost you no harm. There are different skills you should manage to attain. While hiring expert personnel to help you in different aspects is significant, learning the skills firsthand is important as well when you decided to walk your way to midwifery.

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS? 

As you decided to take a step forward on your midwifery practice, note that you will be exposed to different tasks aside from providing excellent midwifery care, which surely you are expert on. Midwives need to understand business, accounting, financing, marketing, negotiating, and so much more to be successful in today’s health care system.

1. Accounting Skills

You will be exposed to a systematic procedure in dealing with your finances along your practice. Being able to understand this aspect is an advantage. Surround yourself with limitless opportunities in your own practice. 

2. Negotiating Skills 

Good negotiations skills contribute significantly to your midwifery practice’s success as they help you build better relationships and deliver lasting quality solutions. You have the power to increase your profitability and build a long term relationship with your clients. As you may encounter different aspects in your practice like discussing an insurance policy having a strong negotiation skills is a strength. 

3. Marketing Skills 

Marketing plays a major role in establishing and maintaining relationships between your midwifery business and your clients. Good marketing skills will help you attain your midwifery practice’s goals. By establishing a good market strategy, you can maximize your midwifery practice’s opportunity to grow and expand. 

4. Communication Skills 

It is fundamental to communicate effectively in negotiations to ensure you achieve your goals. There are different types of communication, may it be a verbal, non-verbal or written communication skills. Communication also takes an important part within your midwifery business. Effective communication can help you foster a good relationship between you and your clients. 

5. Management Skills 

Management skills are important for many reasons. They position you to act as an effective leader and problem solver in many situations. Work on developing this skill and see how it helps you grow your midwifery practice. You can make better decisions, have better ideas, and will make you lead on the right path. If you want to brainstorm midwifery business ideas you have with me, set up a complimentary consultation: https://midwiferybusinessconsultation.com/services-offered.

These are just primary skills that you need before starting your own midwifery practice. Along the way, you will surely discover different skills and attitude that is necessary for your midwifery journey. While going through the deeper meaning of you professionally as a midwife, never forget to take care of yourself. Self-care is another important aspect in attaining your goals. You are surely on the right track!