Any Certified Midwives in the St. Louis Area?

The best way I know to get in touch with folks who have been working on getting midwifery legalized in Missouri is to contact the Missouri Citizens Coalition for Freedom in Health Care, or MCC-FHC. You can join their email group and ask questions.

When I was planning a homebirth, I planned to have a doctor present to deliver the baby and a trained midwife to assist as well. This way, she was really the coach and there were no legal issues to deal with. Missouri has been rather stubborn on this issue. With the terrible infant mortality rate in US hospitals, I don't know how they keep rationalizing the paranoia about homebirths and midwives. In Australia, almost all births are assisted by nurse/midwives, who work with the family with all their pre and post natal needs. Doctors only get involved in very unusual circumstances. Their infant mortality rate is far better than ours! Go figure!

Let me know if you have more questions.

There are now three Certified Professional midwives working near St. Louis, Friends of Missouri Midwives can offer referrals to other midwives as well.

Dr Jack Ricketts is an OB/GYN and has an office in Fenton (near 141 and Gravois). His wife happens to be a licensed nurse/midwife and also works out of his office. The # is ###-###-####. (My mother and sister both work there...) Good luck!

Certified Professional Midwives just became legal in MO this past summer, and there is only one practicing openly in St. Louis, she does homebirths. There are NO Certified Nurse Midwives at any area hospital who have delivery priveleges. There is a birth center in Columbia, MO staffed with a Family Physician and three CPM's. Your best options for St. Louis would be to have a homebirth or choose one of only a handful of docs open to natural birth and you having control over the birth AND I would take a very experienced doula with you who has worked with that doc before with good results.

You will find this a tough situation in St. Louis. However, the felony status of CPM's was just lifted 6 months ago, so it should be a bit easier now to find one outside of the hospital. If you'd like to get support/ connections/ information there is a group that meets once a month (tonight for Jan.) Friends of Missouri Midwives - www.friendsofmissourimidwives.com - you can find it there! Hope you find your ideal birthing situation. Best wishes.

Welcome back! Unfortunately MO is a little behind in embracing midwifery care. Jennifer said it all, just thought I'd chime in that I agree with her. I don't believe that there are any OB practices that allow a CNM to deliver the baby. You're more likely to find a CPM to help you deliver at home. (The closest birth center with midwives is in Columbia, 2 hrs away). Check out FoMM if you can. St. Charles also has a group if you can't make tonight's StL group. Good Luck and Congratulations!!