Home Birth is safe for mom and safe for baby. It is a commitment however, that needs to be well considered. Please explore our website thoroughly. We have provided a Question & Answer page that many clients have found extremely helpful, and a page that shares evidence concerning institutional birth and birth within your own home.

Believe Midwifery Services, LLC has been offering homebirth to Central and Northern Indiana families since 2007. Penny has been attending birthing families since 1997, having helped with more than 2,000 births. Maternity care is certainly our speciality, although Penny in particular is quite passionate about assisting couples to succeed in breastfeeding.

We believe our practice is especially unique in that we highly respect modern medicine, medical interventions used wisely, and we greatly appreciate our physician colleagues. In fact, we work hard to build these relationships. Many of our clients have benefited greatly by the advice and counsel of our physician associates, several having accomplished a successful homebirth because of their expert guidance. Others, when requiring more advanced medical attention than appropriate for our expertise or practice model, have been received with abundant compassion and respect, with which we could not be more grateful. It is the blend of modern medicine and ancient wisdom that we hope to offer.

Of course, we strive to encourage a healthy pregnancy and non-interventive birth, and our statistics demonstrate medical intervention as a rare necessity, but when required, it is our goal to integrate interventions appropriately or transition care with ease. We appreciate the fact that pregnancy and birth are designed to work, and our role is most often similar to that of a life-guard, sometimes even a cheerleader; however, we believe clients hire us for those rare opportunities in which emergency management is necessary. In those events, it is important to have an experienced clinician and a well-prepared plan of action. It is easy to claim the glory of beautiful births, but it is the more complicated scenarios that test the character and skill of a midwife.

If after thoroughly exploring our website and/or attending one of our FREE interview sessions, you are interested in receiving maternity care with Penny and her midwifery team, simply call the office to schedule your first appointment at (765) 436-7527. We ask that you arrive twenty minutes early to complete the necessary paperwork prior to seeing the midwife.

Believe in taking a stand.

You have to pick the place you don't walk away from. JOAN DIDION

We entered this last weekend (42 weeks) heartened by our son’s stellar ultrasound results Friday afternoon. Like the pregnancy, our birth was long & full of emotional highs & lows. I woke up Sunday morning (3:30) with very strong & consistent contractions that fizzled out by the evening. Monday morning produced the same – up at 2 AM with contractions just 5 minutes apart that stayed consistent & strong all night & morning. These stalled out by noon. These were 2 defeating & exhausting false alarms where our birth team came & left our home. I was dilated enough & Toby was low enough that they promised I would have a fast & efficient end to the labor. I certainly did not believe them!

I went into active labor Monday afternoon & birthed Toby just before 6. This part of labor was by far the very best. What had seemed like endless suffering had transformed & I could tell I would birth our son soon after it started. My contractions felt strong & efficient. Our rented tub offered comfort & helped speed up the end of labor. Jeremy was at my side the entire time, massaging & offering verbal support. I birthed him with our incredible & patient midwife Penny leaning over me in the water. When he joined us, he came out very fast & I will always remember Penny telling me to reach down & pick up our son.  

Our birth team checked our vitals as needed, but we spent much of the first hour solo in the bedroom. I remember asking Jeremy if he’d like to hold Toby, & he said, completely genuinely, that he wanted Toby & I to have the first hour “to bond & fall in love.” Our son was so alert, & we couldn’t peel our eyes from each other, Toby, Jeremy & I.

It was an experience like none other, & one I could not have stuck out without the support of a partner as committed to it as I was.  Jeremy encouraged & loved on me the entire labor. I was carried alow from the incredibly patient & loving care we received from Gretchn, our birth attendant, & Penny. They were so good to me, & so encouraging. They believed in me & this process when I felt like giving up. I needed their emotional support several times throughout, & I will always be grateful to them for this.

Later Monday evening, my sister & brother-n-law returned to our home with food & fireworks to help us celebrate our 4th of July baby. The last few days have been a celebration with my family. Jeremy’s family makes the drive from Iowa today & we will continue to celebrate. We feel extraordinarily blessed to bring a child into the world with the love of our families & a community of friends too, to support us.

"Our favorite aspect of care was the educational component of each visit. We had a caring and competent team that allowed us to feel comfortable and in control. THANK-YOU! Our birth was an amazing experience. We couldn't have done it w/o you!"

 Parker Bennett born November 18, 2011 weighing TEN pounds

“The first intervention in natural childbirth is the one that a healthy woman does herself when she walks out the front door of her own home in labor.  It is from that first intervention that all others follow.”    

Michael Rosenthal, OB/GYN 

Adhuil Lisette

Born into Daddy's hands in the family's backyard spa

November 2010

(Remember that warm week in November? We were catching babies outside! Beautiful!!)

Charles Douglas is the precious child of a first time Mother and Father. Charles was born in water, and caught by his mother.

Click here to watch one of Penny's favorite YouTube Videos with adorable newborns.

“Excellent outcomes with much lower intervention rates are achieved at home births. This may be because the overuse of interventions in hospital births introduces risks or the home environment promotes problem-free labors.”   ~ Henci Goer