SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane hospitals have put restrictions in place for moms-to-be giving birth in response to the coronavirus, including enforcing a mask rule and limiting the number of guests allowed at each birth.
Many local families were concerned about the restrictions on top of giving birth, so they turned to home births instead.
Rebekah Alice has been a midwife for years, helping families deliver babies from home. She said her business has increased dramatically since coronavirus restrictions went into place.
For over five years Alice booked only four due dates per month, but she said the past few months have been different. She has booked up to seven births each month since March.
That's due to an increased demand for home births amid the pandemic.
"I've had many third trimester transfers. I've had some people transfer in just weeks before they were going to be delivering," Alice said.
For many parents doing a home birth relieved some of the worry about COVID-19 restrictions in a traditional hospital birth. Which is exactly why Kylie Isaacson and her husband decided to make the switch.
At 30 weeks pregnant, Isaacson found Alice and hired her as a midwife.
"Oh it was so great. it was just exactly the birth that I envisioned having," Isaacson said.
She was able to have a support system at her side throughout her birth, including her mom, husband and best friend. She said even though a home birth was not an option for her family before the pandemic, it worked out in the end.
"As long as my future pregnancies go as well as this one did, and I don't have any complications in those I will always do a home birth," Isaacson said.
With more and more moms deciding to do home births, Alice said she is booking up quickly.
"There is going to be a boom in December. I am not even kidding. That month I booked seven, and I had to turn so many people away," Alice said.
December due dates are exactly nine months after march, which is when the stay at home order took place. So a local quarantine baby boom might be in the cards.