By NINA CULVER

For Coeur Voice

Women have to consider many things when planning for the birth of a baby, including whether they’d like to give birth at home, in the hospital, or in a birthing center. There’s also the decision about who should deliver the baby – a doctor or a midwife.

Dayspring Midwifery Services in Hayden offers a home-like setting where women can receive prenatal care and give birth. It’s located inside what looks like a farmhouse and boasts a comfortable living room, kitchen and dining room. Each of the three birthing rooms looks like a bedroom and has a double or queen bed along with a large tub for women who want to give birth in water.

Inga Arts, a licensed and certified professional midwife, founded the business in 1997 and at first did only home births. She opened the birthing center at 1076 W. Hayden Avenue 15 years ago.

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Arts now leads a team of three midwives. She said midwifery is ideal for healthy women with low-risk pregnancies who want a natural birth outside of a hospital setting.

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That’s what Ashley Oscarson was looking for when she found Dayspring. Her first baby was delivered by a doctor in a hospital on Moses Lake, but she found the experience to be impersonal. She said she only saw her doctor when it was time to deliver; other than that she was in the care of nurses she had never met before.

“After that I decided I wanted a birthing center,” she said.

Her second and third children, including seven-week-old son Titus, were born at Dayspring.

“I love that they’re with you the whole entire time,” she said. “I know they’re going to be with me all through labor.”

That desire is what attracts a lot of people to midwives, Arts said. “There’s such a small group of us that they get to see the same people all through their pregnancy,” she said.

When a woman goes into labor, there are no staff shift changes to worry about.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s three hours or 30 hours,” Arts said. “We’re here.”

Certified professional midwife Jennifer Brakeman noted that their office visits are 45 minutes, much longer than a traditional visit with a doctor.

“Midwifery is very relational,” she said. “We spend a lot of time with our clients.”

Inga said about 30 percent of Dayspring’s clients give birth in their own homes. About half choose a water birth. Crystal Hawkins, who is sixth months pregnant with her second child, had a water birth the first time and plans to have another. “It’s so soothing,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins heard about Dayspring from friends at her church and the idea of a midwife appealed to her.

“I really wanted everything all natural, to labor how I wanted to labor,” she said. “I had the worship music going and the lights off. It was just the most beautiful experience.”

Both mothers said they liked the homey touches at the birth center, where medical instruments are stored in dressers. They also said that they felt like they were treated like family.

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“They really do become family,” Oscarson said.

“I miss them when I’m not pregnant.”

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Both women came to Dayspring after hearing about it from friends. Arts said word of mouth is what drives her business. She and her team usually deliver between 80 and 100 babies each year.

“I haven’t done any advertising since the first couple of years I’ve been here,” Arts said. “Word of mouth has made my business what it is.”

If a birth becomes complicated and a C-section is required, expectant mothers are taken to Kootenai Health.

“We go with them, we stay with them and we continue our care after,” Arts said. “We take whatever physician is on call. We at Dayspring have a really good working relationship with Kootenai.”

While Arts and her fellow midwives go to the hospital with their patients, they cannot do any care in the hospital. “There are no certified nurse midwives here,” she said. “We don’t have hospital privileges.”

Dayspring accepts Idaho Medicaid, but otherwise does not bill insurance. They do, however, provide patients with the proper codes so they can try to get reimbursed from their health insurance after the baby is born, Arts said.

The birthing package for first time mothers is $5,800 and includes an ultrasound, lab work, childbirth classes, a doula (a supportive companion) and seven massages provided on-site. Repeat mothers pay $4,800 for an ultrasound, lab work and five massages. Full details are available at Cdastork.com.