Ronnie Falcao, Licensed Midwife, Holistic Postpartum Midwifery Care for Mother and Baby

Ronnie Falcao, Licensed Midwife
Holistic Postpartum Midwifery Care for Mother and Baby
European-Style Postpartum Midwifery Care

Mothers and babies thrive best when receiving in-home midwifery care,
in the style of many European countries.

I offer in-home clinical midwifery care as needed to support an optimal postpartum recovery for mothers, an optimal start in life for babies, and lactation assistance for an optimal establishment of a happy breastfeeding relationship.

I am a homebirth midwife, routinely providing comprehensive midwifery care – prenatal care, birth attendance, and postpartum care for new mothers and babies, including lactation consulting. I am also available to provide in-home postpartum care for new mothers and babies after a hospital birth with another healthcare provider.

Each of these appointments includes the following for the newborn:

1) Status of the umbilical cord and clamp
2) Vital signs (temperature, pulse, respiratory rate, lungs)
3) Weight gain
4) Skin color – evaluation of skin rashes
5) Feeding, hydration status, and elimination
6) Sleep/wake patterns
7) Bonding and family response to the baby's needs

Each of these appointments includes the following for the mother:

1) General well-being and emotional temper
2) Vital signs (temperature, pulse, respiratory rate, blood pressure)
3) Review of herbs or medications
4) Nutrition and elimination
5) Perineum/sutures/incision
6) Lochia/bleeding
7) Fundus/afterpains

Additional assessments are made for breastfeeding and family well-being:

1) Breastfeeding evaluation, education and support
2) Addressing the concerns of the family

I bring a variety of remedies and comfort aids to these appointments; your fee includes up to $50 worth of herbs or supplies as needed.
A recommended appointment schedule would be the first or second day after you come home from the hospital, another 3 days later, another week later, and another 2 weeks later, depending on when you have appointments scheduled with other healthcare providers, or according to your personal needs.

Fees

My fee for a two-hour in-home postpartum appointment is $450; payment is due at the end of each appointment. My services will be covered by the better insurance plans as separate appointments for mother and baby; I will give you invoices that you can use to file claims with your insurance company. [NOTE – although I feel that postpartum care, especially lactation consulting, is best provided in the home, the care described above is also available in my office for $350.]

If you would like to meet me during your pregnancy to arrange in-home postpartum care, I offer a one-hour office appointment for $75.

Availability

I am generally available 7 days a week and offer evening and weekend appointments. However, if I am at a birth, I may not be available for up to 72 hours. If necessary, I can arrange an emergency appointment with another midwife.

Ronnie Falcao, Licensed Midwife
Attending births since 1991, Licensed since 1997

Knowledgeable about the midwifery use of herbs, homeopathy and hypnosis
A midwife’s heart and hands combined with an engineer’s problem solving skills

If you'd like to learn more about my midwifery services, please phone me at 650-961-9728 with your e-mail address or send me e-mail.
My e-mail address is "ronnie" at "gentlebirth.org". Please put the word "midwife" in the subject to get through my spam filters. Please let me know your due date and where you live; if you also let me know what kind of insurance you have, I can share my experience about the insurance reimbursement you can expect to receive for my services. Thanks.

I provide care in homes within about 15 miles of Mountain View, California and will drive further by special arrangement.

Here's my contact information for anything besides my midwifery services.

Some pages I've written:

Perspectives on Normal Childbirth - An article I wrote for the ICAN journal about my internship in an El Paso, Texas, birth center. I was astounded that they had a cesarean rate of less than 1% without compromising the well-being of the mother or baby.

Homebirth Safety and Benefits - Homebirth is as safe or safer than hospital birth in most cases; homebirth also offers intangible benefits beyond superior safety.

Information about VRE - Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus - It was recently reported that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, enterococcus, has infected 100% of the surveyed hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some pages I've edited:

The Midwife Archives - As a way of organizing my notes about information and wisdom shared on the various birth-related distribution lists, I created the Midwife Archives. Please visit those pages for answers to many practical questions and for an interesting perspective on the mystical side of birth.

Some pages I've formatted in co-operation with the authors:

Benefits and risks of episiotomy: A review of the English-language literature since 1980
A journal article by Robert J. Woolley, MD.

Is Homebirth for You? 6 Myths About Childbirth Exposed
An online version of the booklet originally published by Friends of Homebirth (Editor: Janet Tipton, 1990)

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