Services and FAQs

Queen City Birth Services offers birth center and  homebirth midwifery services, as well as monitrice/labor support services for hospital births, and childbirth education classes located in Fishersvile, VA.
Call or email to schedule your free consultation with a midwife.

FREESTANDING BIRTH CENTER 
-NOW OPEN-

Our midwifery service areas include Staunton, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville. 

We also offer free birth plan consultations. Bring a draft of your ideas, and we will help you formulate a birth plan that effectively communicates your birthing preferences. This service is free, regardless of where you plan to give birth.

Monthly Birth Circles! These birth circles will be open all mothers, regardless of where they birth. Birth circles happen the first Monday of each month 6-7:30PM. We are meeting online during the pandemic. Please see our FB page for more information.

Birth Center and Homebirth Midwifery Care

Your Birth, Your Way!
Erin Murphy, CPM, LM
is a Certified Professional Midwife and licensed Midwife, and  provides home birth midwifery services within a 1hr radius of Staunton, VA. By choosing to receive prenatal, birth, and postpartum care with Erin Murphy, you will receive top quality midwifery care at an affordable fee. 
Erin is a mother of five children, and has been attending births for 17+ years as a birth worker. She currently serves as doula mentor for newer doulas in the Staunton area, and strives to create a network of birth workers that support each other and the community. Erin was born at home herself, and she grew up in a culture that supported the normal physiology and sanctity of birth. This upbringing instilled in her a deep respect and reverence for the profound effect of the birth experience on growing families. She began her clinical midwifery training in 2016, and attended the Academy of Experiential Midwifery Education in Charlottesville, VA. 

Midwifery Fee Basic Package:
​$3500

Care Plan includes: 

• -Evidence-based, respectful care
• Prenatal, birth, and postpartum
• 45-60 minute appointments
• Childbirth education classes included through Queen City Birth Services LLC
• Continuous labor support from a licensed midwife
• We offer water birth! Birth pool provided (deposit required for home birth portable tub) 
• Placenta encapsulation at no extra charge! 
• Two postpartum home visits in the first week after birth
• Postpartum office visits at 2, 4, and 6 weeks.
• 24/7 breastfeeding support

​

Professional, Midwife Attended Labor Support
- Monitrice Services -

For families planning a hospital birth-- but desiring services beyond the scope of a doula--monitrice labor support services are a good option to consider.
As a licensed midwife, Erin is able to provide monitrice services, which include labor support, as well as clinical skills. This can be helpful for those wishing to labor at home as long as possible, but ultimately give birth at the hospital. This is different than a doula because a monitrice has a wider scope of practice and can offer clinical skills, such as fetal heart tones and cervical exams to help the laboring couple time when to leave for the hospital. This is especially helpful for moms wanting a natural birth, first time moms, VBACs, and those with previous birth trauma.
A monitrice can also take maternal vitals, palpate to assess fetal position, and give suggestions on how to optimize fetal position. 

Having professional labor support at your hospital birth has been proven to reduce the incidence of C-section, lower the need for epidurals, and increase the overall satisfaction with the birth experience. Erin has attended hundreds of births since 2002, and has qualtifications as a doula and midwife. As a monitrice, I work for you, not the hospital.

Placenta encapsulation and childbirth education classes are offered  free of charge for all QCBS monitrice and midwifery clients. 

Monitrice services are offered prior to arrival at the hospital. Once at the hospital, the role shifts to labor support only, and the hospital is responsible for all clinical tasks. 
​As a monitrice, I will not deliver your baby. Monitrice services are not intended for medical treatment, but to assess labor progress in order to time hospital arrival. You should discuss your plans to have a licensed midwife as your monitrice with your care provider prior to your birth.
 
​Monitrice Fee: $1300

Monitrice services are outside the scope of a doula (maternal vitals, fetal heat tones, cervical exams, palpating fetal position).​
If you are simply looking for a birth doula, Queen City Birth Services also facilitates doula referrals so that you can find the right fit for you. We have several doulas that we recommend that have demonstrated reliability and competency. Fees vary dependent on which doula you choose. 

​Queen City Birth Services also offers postpartum doula services which are offered at a fee of $30 per hour/min 2 hrs per visit. 

Childbirth Education

Queen City Birth Services offers midwife-led, independent childbirth education classes in Staunton, VA. 
The classes come in a 3 part series:
(1) Childbirth 101, (2) Labor Comforts, (3) Hospital Birth Your Way. The fee is $50 per class. Classes are located in downtown Staunton with free parking. Topics covered:

• Optimizing and supporting normal. The normal physiology of birth, and how to create an environment that optimizes your body’s natural process.
• Creating a birth plan. The risks and benefits of common interventions, and making informed decisions that are right for YOU
• Shared Decision Making, and why it is important to participate in your care
• Your rights as a birthing person
• Tried and true comfort and coping measures for labor
• Supporting the postpartum period and breastfeeding

contact queencitybirthservices@gmail.com to reserve your spot in the next class series. 

FAQs

Q. Do you take insurance?
A. We will walk you though the insurance process so that you can have your best shot at reimbursement from the insurance company after your care is completed. We take pride in helping you to get reimbursed!

Q. How can I afford the out-of-pocket expense of a birth center/homebirth? If I go to the hospital my insurance will just pay for the cost, so why bother?
A. You will remember the way you were made to feel at your birth  for the rest of your life, and with the average hospital C-section rate of approximately 30%, you are more likely to have lasting physical effects that influence your future reproductive health. Yes, there is an extra cost, but for many people, the extra cost is worth the desired birth experience. Also, most insurance companies will not pay 100% of your maternity care. When you factor in all of your insurance copays from prenatal care, hospital, and postpartum care, plus any deductible responsibility, most of the time you would end up paying more out-of-pocket for an "insurance covered" hospital birth than our total midwifery care fees. 
In order to keep homebirth affordable, QCBS offers a highly discounted fee (includes prenatal care, birth, and postpartum care). You are welcome to make payments during your prenatal care, with the full amount due by 36 weeks.

Q. Is out-of-hospital, community birth safe? 
A. Numerous studies have proven that a planned birth in the out-of-hospital setting with a midwife is as safe, if not safer than a hospital birth for low risk, healthy mothers. That is not to say that there are no risks with homebirth because every setting has its own set of risks and benefits. Even hospital birth has its risks, and there is no such thing as a 0% mortality rate with birth. It is up to the individual(s) to decide which set of risks/benefits they are most comfortable with. 

​Q. What about the mess?
A. Believe it or not, it is usually an easy, quick clean-up. Your birth team will do most of this for you. Usually there is one bag of trash, and one load of laundry, which we will gladly toss in the washer for you!

Q. What if a complication arises?
A. According to MANA statistics, the leading cause of transfer to a hospital is for non-emergent situations such as maternal exhaustion. In some of these situations midwives can intervene to get things back on track to normal. However, we pay very close attention, and should a problem start to declare itself, we will discuss with you options for transfer to a hospital. Again, most transfers take place for non-emergent complications. Should a true emergency arise--which is rare--your midwives are trained how to care for mother and baby in those situations while awaiting the help of emergency medical services. Our birth center is one stoplight away from the hospital, making transport a quick process.

Q. What about the pain? How can I get through labor without pain medications?
A. This is a very normal concern, but we see women cope with their labor discomforts quite effectively when they are supported and left undisturbed. This undisturbed environment is much easier to achieve at home than an unfamiliar hospital environment. When women are constantly stimulated, and bombarded with questions, strangers, and hospital protocols, it is quite hard to relax and let your body release its natural pain killers. In these adrenaline producing situations, women can have a harder time coping. By laboring at home, many women find that their labor is easier to cope with.
Fear also plays a role. We go to great lengths to help educate women about the birthing process to help alleviate fear because fear heightens our sense of pain. We also have a lot of experience with comfort measures to help support you during the work of labor (water, massage, TENS unit, homeopathy, herbs, and acupressure).
We have helped birthing woman after birthing woman see their way through this journey. It also helps that we have been in your shoes a time or two (between the four of us we have birthed 12 babies). You can do it!

Q. Do you offer water birth?
​A. Yes, Queen City Birth Services offers water birth! We love water birth, and will have this option available to you at your birth. Our birth center has deep soaking tubs that are specifically designed for water birth. For home births we supply the birth pool at no extra charge (w/deposit), and assist with its easy set-up. Many women find the water offers great pain relief and freedom of movement. Some women like this option for birth, and some like it just for labor. We will follow your lead! 

 Q. Who can I have at my birth? My partner, sister, mother, doula?
A. This is YOUR birth! You get to decide who you have support you during this very important life event. QCBS believes that birthing people are the best decision makers regarding support choices. Want a doula at your birth? Great! We love doulas. Your birth, your way!

Q. How is a freestanding birth center birth with a midwife different than a hospital birth with a midwife/OB?
A. Freestanding birth centers cater to low-risk women, and we are a low volume practice. Because of that we can offer full continuity of care (no strangers at your birth), we have the flexibility for more individualized care, and we are not governed by hospital policies that may not be evidence-based for low-risk mothers. 
The hospital is not a bad place, and undoubtedly they offer a needed service. For those that are high-risk, or simply feel safer in the hospital, the hospital is a good option. However. for mothers that feel that the hospital care model is not suited to their individual risk factors as a low-risk mother, and don't want to struggle with routine hospital policies that often make natural/physiologic birth more challenging, then a freestanding birth center or home brith is a safe, gentle option to consider. 
Home is not hospital, and hospital is not home--each setting comes with their own set of risks/benefits, and we offer very different models of care. Hospitals operate on a Management Model of Care (sometimes called Medical Model), and our practice has a Physiologic Model of Care (sometimes called Midwife Model).
We are here to offer an alternative for those that feel safer in the home and birth center environment, and have determined that the risk/benefit trade off of out-of-hospital birth better meets their needs. 

Queen City Birth Services LLC
1610 Goose Creek Rd
Fishersville, VA 22939
540-435-3907
QueenCityBirthServices@gmail.com