Morning Star Birth Center of Menomonie provides comprehensive midwifery care offering a birth center (with birth suites for delivery and postpartum), home birth (available within 30 miles of Menomonie, WI), water birth options, and more. We believe that pregnancy and birth are natural processes, not states of illness. Our primary goal is to provide competent nurturing care to pregnant women and their families, and to actively include them in the exciting process of birth and family bonding. We give maternity care, throughout all stages of pregnancy, to expecting mothers that wish to deliver their babies in a non-institutional environment. We are pleased to offer the following services to women, and their families, during pregnancy and birth, and beyond. We also offer an ample library for those of you who wish to explore some issues in depth.

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What to Expect

Our clients can expect thorough, high quality, one-on-one maternity care and are treated with the respect and nurturing that women need and deserve. The care you receive before, during and after birth is very personalized. We are available around the clock to teach, advise and support the expecting mother and her family.

Our education and professional experience enables us to identify potential or actual complications and, combined with the level of personal involvement in each woman's pregnancy, many problems can be averted that could otherwise appear during delivery and/or require medical intervention.


Comprehensive Midwifery Services – The Midwives Model of Care

Midwifery is the Oldest Health Care Specialty in History! A midwife is not a doctor. She does not want to control your body or "save" you from childbirth. She wants to offer support, an experienced eye to pick up on anything out of the normal, a shoulder to lean on, knowledge that will assist you in making good decisions and giving birth effectively and beautifully, and a friendly ear to listen as you share your feelings and wishes.

How do the Midwife's Model of care and the Medical Model Differ?

Our practice is characterized by minimal intervention in the natural process of pregnancy and birth

• Midwives of Morning Star do not perform routine episiotomies, enemas, antiseptic cleanses, draping or other unnecessary routine medical procedures.
• Appropriate monitoring of fetal well-being is done with intermittent, portable Doppler.
• Pain relief is accomplished by changes of position, massage, hydrotherapy, emotional support, nourishment and a comfortable, relaxed environment, all of which are very effective and pose no risk to mother or her baby.
• You will be continuously attended by the same care team during your entire birth.
• As this is your birth, you choose who will attend your delivery, and only persons familiar to you will be giving care.
• Written Birth Plans are followed as closely as possible.
• A midwife cannot handle all the potential problems of pregnancy, labor and birth. There will be times when she will suggest you see a doctor or seek hospital care. Between 5 and 10 women out of 100 will need some sort of service she cannot supply. You must know and be comfortable with her limitations, listen carefully to her advice, and be willing to take responsibility for making your own birthing decisions.