Interview with Paula Bernini-Feigal, CPM and Founder of Morning Star Birth Center

by Jodi Stebleton

Birth center care is a pretty well known option, growing in popularity in the US and it’s growing in the Midwest. It’s safe, a great in-between place for moms who don’t feel comfortable staying home, and who don’t fall into a risk category needing hospital care.  Every culture has a birthing culture and in the US our culture is to go somewhere to have a baby.  It wasn’t always that way; nevertheless the birth center meets that simple cultural need to go somewhere to have a baby.

To be clear, a birth center is not a mini hospital.  A birth center is a maximized home; a place that is designed and built specifically for the care of healthy, pregnant, and birthing women and their families.

In a time when our economy is at an all-time low, why are you so confident in starting a new business?

It’s not new!  Birth centers have been fully established and operational for more than 30 years in our country.  And it’s not new to me.  It’s an expansion of the business that I have over there in a little town in western Wisconsin.  I feel confident in expanding into the Metro because women are still going to be having babies regardless of the economy, hospital care costs are astronomical and rising, and the birth center fits what women want on a personal and emotional level for birthing.  We know from data that it’s safe – as safe as birthing in a hospital for low-risk women – and it costs less. 

What inspired you to open this birth center in the Twin Cities?

Part of it is the personal mission that has fueled my passion for midwifery since I found out what midwives were, and the other is the simple business fact: 18 % of my clients came to Wisconsin from Minnesota.  For every woman that was brave enough to cross the river to give birth, there were 4 who felt really nervous about that.  It’s just not fair for Minnesota women not to have such a reasonable, wonderful alternative to hospital or home birthing.

Why do you think your birth center in Menomonie is so successful?

It’s managed well.  We’re doing it because we’re passionate about offering this model of care and this option to women, and that’s really at the core of what we do.  Families feel comfortable, they love the intimacy of the environment and the care that they receive, and we – as the providers – are all on the same page.  It’s a small group.  The ultimate marker of success is that women come back and they tell their friends.

Do you think the Twin Cities will afford you the same opportunities to be successful? 

Yes.  It’s not just about the numbers, but the number of clients that come back and say, “I wouldn’t do it differently at all – that’s the birth I want again.”

How does owning and operating these two birth centers satisfy you personally and professionally?

When I was a young pregnant woman, I was a little bit shocked to find out I was pregnant.  I went into automatic mode: find a “baby doctor,” someone who will give me care during pregnancy. 

I had a vague idea that I had some options about where to give birth, but I had no idea that there were different providers that attended women for pregnancy care and birth care.   First I interviewed and toured hospitals and chose the one that felt most in line with what I thought I would want: a labor/delivery/recovery room and where they let babies room-in.  Then I found doctors who had privileges at that hospital and I interviewed them face-to-face.  I thought I was really doing my homework! 

I found an OB who said, “Yeah, you can eat and drink in labor.” And, “No, I don’t cut episiotomies.  (Unless you need one.)”  And, “You probably won’t have to have an IV.”  I asked him straight out if he thought women’s bodies are capable of birthing their babies.  He said, “Of course, it’s been happening since we’ve been on the planet.”  So I said, this is the guy for me. I had my routine 6 minute prenatal visits and learned a lot on my own from reading, feeling, and imagining about birth.  I had really positive ideas of what my body was capable of. 

When I was 40 weeks pregnant my doctor said, “Well I know you want to have a vaginal birth so we don’t want this baby to get too big for your pelvis.  If you haven’t delivered in another few days, you should come in so we can induce you.”  It was the first time in my pregnancy that I doubted for an instant that my body couldn’t birth my baby.  At 41 weeks I went to the hospital for my induction, because I really did want a vaginal birth.

That’s when I learned about how birth is in a hospital setting.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t.  It wasn’t nurturing, it wasn’t supportive, it wasn’t in line with what my doctor and I had talked about, my doctor wasn’t there, and I didn’t know that there was any other way. 

Two days after birth we were separated for five days because she started to get jaundiced.  I was told that nursing her would be bad for her and could give her brain damage, and she needed to stay in the hospital under bili lights and for observation. 

I had a huge episiotomy that I was recovering from and was going back and forth to the hospital to feed her a bottle.  When I was finally able to bring my baby home, we struggled a lot with nursing.  Just like I didn’t have any support during my pregnancy, I didn’t have any community of support after.  I was still recovering from the stress of that months later when someone said to me, when I expressed feeling empty in reflecting on my birth experience, “It sounds like you needed a midwife.” 

The bells went off in my head.  A midwife.  I didn’t even know what that was!  In an attempt to put the pieces together in order to heal, I needed to find out what midwives were and how their care differs from the care I received; to see if that was the answer. 

When my daughter was about 18-20 months old I found a midwife in Dallas, TX who invited me to come and shadow her at her birth center for a day.  I got to see, at least in prenatal care, what a birth center and midwives had to offer.  I was blown away – I couldn’t believe that I was so unaware because it was exactly the kind of care that would’ve been the right care for me. 

I had a glimpse of what this real special, intimate care could look like and I just thought that was so amazing.  When she called me back two weeks later and invited me to begin an apprenticeship – relocate from Minnesota to Dallas with my baby, I was a single mom so in that regard I was rather free to go – I accepted. I knew I was ready to be a part of something so profound.  It was and still is the greatest honor to be able to provide that kind of care to women.

Tell me about Morning Star Women’s Health and Birth Center

The Birth Center program is pretty education-intensive.  We expect that our clients are ready to be active participants in their health care, that they are interested in gathering information, and making informed decisions.  From the very beginning: comprehensive prenatal care and laboratory testing and referral for things like ultrasound that women need or want.  In all of those things, women need to be willing to be informed and know why they are accepting or declining.  They can expect thorough, professional, friendly care; respectful care for them and their families. 

Prenatal care is very thorough and a wonderful opportunity to be ultimately prepared for birth and the transition from being pregnant to birthing your baby and then the natural evolution into that new realm of parenting.  And it’s new every time, whether it’s your first or your sixth. 

Mom comes to the birth center in active labor and she delivers with the team that she knows. After the birth and some hours of monitoring, we get mom and baby tucked in at home. 

The midwife will go to the family’s home the next day to check on mom and baby so they can stay resting but get an assessment. Then we have postpartum visits on day 3 or 4, at one week, three weeks, and six weeks after birth.  It’s kind of a gradual weaning of her care with her midwives. 

Moms can benefit from the ongoing support and care from her care team, as well as maintain her sense of community by attending gatherings and parenting classes/workshops at the Center.

For more information or to schedule a free initial consultation, visit www.morningstarbirth.com or call 612-922-4784 in the Twin Cities / 715-231-3100 in western Wisconsin.

A great resource to check out during pregnancy is: 

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth