Roots and Wings Midwifery

07/18/2025

📣 Midwives Make a Difference! 📣

Did you know??
➡️ Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the whole country (!!)
➡️ It is estimated that midwives could reduce the maternal mortality rate by HALF
➡️ The most recent estimate is that only 12% of births are attended by midwives
➡️ Only about 1.5% of births in TN are planned home births with a licensed provider

Even though midwives are clearly part of the solution, there are still barriers to care! Cost and distance are likely the top two factors that limit accessibility.

☝️Home birth midwifery care is often paid for as an out-of-pocket expense. This is because midwives are not reimbursed fairly by insurance companies, which makes it not-sustainable for them to become in-network providers. This low coverage rate is true even though a midwife spends significantly more time with each client (hence the better outcomes). And there is also the issue that many insurance companies won’t cover midwifery care—especially for out of hospital births.
✌️Families that live in rural areas have to drive long distances for prenatal care. Transportation is a barrier for many rural families and can keep them from receiving the care they need during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

What can you do?
✅ Contact your insurance company and demand access to midwifery care
✅ Donate to a birth fund to make care more accessible to families (Roots & Wings has a birth equity fund!)
✅ Talk about it—We deserve better care when we’re having a baby.

New data shows midwives improve outcomes and could cut maternal death nearly in half—yet many U.S. moms still struggle to access midwifery care.

07/18/2025

Shew, sometimes these 6 week appointments really sneak up on me! It’s hard to believe this journey is already at the end and it sure is bittersweet.
💜 I’ve loved watching you courageously approach birth again.
💜 I’ve loved the conversations about the physical and mental preparations and the discussions about surrender and letting go.
💜 I’ve loved watching you do the hard things and getting to support you through those difficult moments.
💜 I’ve loved seeing the joy on your face as you experienced a supported pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
Thank you for the honor of being part of your birth team.
Can’t wait to see you again someday. 😊

07/17/2025

Ok, hear me out—even if you don’t want to encapsulate your placenta, don’t you at least want to commemorate this awesome moment with a beautiful placenta print?
What a unique way to honor the beauty of birth and all that your body has accomplished!

07/17/2025

Here’s two of our birth bunch rocking their Roots & Wings onesies! Don’t they look so precious? 😍💜

07/16/2025

I had the best little helpers in the office yesterday! 💜

07/15/2025

“You were so right—they got a lot more intense than they were when I first called you.”
That’s the beauty of a first birth—you don’t know what you don’t know! The downside to that is every contraction is the most intense contraction you’ve ever felt so you don’t have the perspective of where this is going. But when things ramp up, who do you want on your birth team to help you cope?
You want a partner to support your plans and all the positions you may want to be in.
You want a sister who will moan with you to keep your birth sounds low and open.
You want people who will hold your puke bag, give you a double, double hip squeeze, feed you snacks, and remind you of what an awesome amazing job you’re doing.
You need people around you who love you, believe in you, and support you—even if you start to question yourself.
This client absolutely rocked her birth, even when it got stronger, even when it was hard— and she had the best support people going through it with her. I know she would have done it regardless, but I love that she was surrounded with encouragement and support as she navigated her labor and birth. Her team was ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
Whenever and wherever you deliver, I hope you will have equally awesome support at your birth!

07/14/2025

Here’s a peek at one of those cute 7 lb 8 oz babies we had over the weekend—she was showing off her perfect little toes! 😍

07/13/2025

Yesterday was wild. 💫 There was so much of feeling “in between,” which is really what labor is. You’re in between being pregnant and postpartum. You’re in between contractions. You’re in between being a family of 2 (or 3 or 6) and being a family of 3 (or 4 or 7).
Laura and I spent a lot of time “in between” yesterday, too—in between births! We had three babies born yesterday, which is so unusual for us, but they were all super considerate and took turns. 🐣🐣🐣Even more wild than 3 babies in one day is that is all of them weighed 7 lb 8 oz!
One of the births was really special to me. I’d helped her sister-in-law have her first baby over a decade ago when I was a student midwife. It was one of those births that shapes how you practice and how you see yourself as a midwife. So to help this lady have her first baby just filled my heart—I’d been looking forward to it so much that being there in that moment felt like coming out of the in between.
I took this picture while I was driving to her birth—the moon out in front of me and the sun rising behind me. A moment of “in between.”
The whole day felt a little surreal (maybe it was the lack of sleep? 😂) but now that I’m past the in between, I can’t help but wonder what all we will find on the other side?! ☀️🌖

07/12/2025

I love getting to a birth and seeing that our client has been using our book to help prepare for and work through labor! 😍 There’s so much normal variation to labor and birth and we’re here to help guide you through every step of the process.

07/09/2025

Raise your hand if you think it should be the norm that your healthy, new baby never leaves your sight and is always right by you? 🙋🏻‍♀️ With Roots & Wings we do all of your baby’s newborn care next to you. Even their hearing screening and metabolic screening can be done there—and often they’ll nurse through it!
Plus, the newborn exam is such a fun time to let baby show off all of their new tricks—we don’t want you to miss any of it! 🤩