Giving Women More Options

Illinois Valley Woman Book Club

New midwifery business offers home births and more

Story and photos by Goldie Rapp

At a young age, Angela Reidner knew she wanted to be involved in helping people deliver their babies in a good way. She’s unsure what sparked the aspiration, but it stuck with her all the way to college at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. During her studies there, she discovered midwifery and thought it might be what she’d want to do someday. After graduating from Wesleyan, she went into labor and delivery nursing and followed a path of high-risk obstetrics. She was a maternal transport flight nurse for a while before becoming a critical care OB nurse. While working in the midst of OB trauma and emergencies, it was women of normal, healthy pregnancies that Reidner worried about most. She said these women were not getting a “just service” under the overbearing hospital policies and procedures that regulated how their babies were delivered. “We were treating everyone like they were a potential disaster. There was something that could potentially go wrong and they were sick,” she said.

“When something is wrong, having that skill level, that knowledge, those services is ideal. Unfortunately, 80 to 90 percent of women don’t fall into that category. They’re normal, healthy, and all the stuff we’re doing to assess their labor progress just causes trouble, causes problems.” After seeing enough of this, Reidner returned to school in hopes of helping these mothers. She became a certified nurse midwife at the University of

Illinois in Chicago, which kick-started a 30-year midwifery career spent in local hospital systems. Reidner said wise use of interventions has always been her primary goal as a midwife. “Use it when it’s important to use it and don’t use it to cause problems when it’s not necessary,” she said.

Angela Reidner, CNM, stands inside one of two exam rooms at Catching Joy Midwifery in Princeton.

The waiting room inside Catching Joy Midwifery and Collective Family Health offers a calm and inviting space for families.

Throughout her career, it was a goal of Reidner’s to eventually move on to working with home births. The time has never been better for her than now, with her own children grown and having moved on in their own careers. After many talks with her husband, Reidner decided to open Catching Joy Midwifery in Princeton this past January.

“It was a big leap to say this needed to happen in our community,” she said.

Reidner admits she knew she was a great midwife, but running her own practice was all new territory for her. But with the support of key members in the community, many of them businesswomen who mentored her through the process, her dream was born, you could say.

“I couldn’t have done this without the support of the community,” she said.

WHAT EXACTLY IS MIDWIFERY?

“When people choose midwifery care, they choose a healthcare provider that’s licensed, certified, and committed to providing care to a woman that’s highly personalized, individualized, and evidence-based,” Reidner explained.

She describes midwives as being team members in the healthcare system.

“We have a scope of practice that is not inclusive of all the care that women might need throughout pregnancy, so we like to work in conjunction with healthcare systems and other providers to help women secure all the levels of care they might need outside the scope of midwifery,” she said.

Midwives consider themselves experts on what’s normal in a pregnancy.

“When things are no longer identified as being normal, we try to course-correct and try to treat within our scope. When it’s no longer in our scope of practice, we refer, consult, and collaborate,” Reidner said.

Angela Reidner, CNM, removes OB utensils from the sterilizer as they are prepared for the next home birth.

HOME BIRTHS ARE TRENDING

The timing of opening Catching Joy Midwifery perhaps has never been better. Most recently, due to changes in local hospital systems, Bureau County lost its last area obstetric unit. The change forces families to drive 30 minutes or more to seek OB services, which is not always deemed convenient for mothers and families.

Also, the trend of home births is on the rise. More women are choosing to stay home to deliver for a couple of reasons. Reidner said the pandemic has been a huge factor. At the start of pandemic, women didn’t want to be exposed to COVID in a hospital environment, they didn’t want to wear a mask during delivery, and they didn’t want to be separated from their loved ones.

According to the CDC, the percentage of home births in the U.S. reached 1.26 percent in 2020, which was a 22 percent increase from 2019 and the highest level since 1990. In Illinois alone, 1.35 percent of births were chosen home births in 2020.

“Women want a sense of autonomy in their case,” Reidner said. “They want individualization. They want personalized care.”

Women also want to be able to labor at home in their own environment where they can eat and drink the food of their choice and not worry about driving to a facility that will implement their own procedures and policies regarding the birth.

Working in the home, Reidner said she conducts her assessments in a manner that’s conducive to the mother while she’s laboring and does so in a way that does not undo the vibe the family has going on during that time.

Reidner said she once came across a saying that has stuck with her throughout her career: “The hospital is the doctor’s house. The birth center

See MIDWIFERY page 18 Angela Reidner, CNM, has opened Catching Joy Midwifery in Princeton, which offers home births and well-woman health care.

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is the midwife’s house. The home is the family’s house. Depending on whose house you’re in, they’re in control.”

“It made perfect sense to me,” she said. “And that empowers women.”

MORE THAN JUST BABIES

When we think midwifery, we think babies, but Reidner provides services for women at any stage of life. Reidner offers a cumulative approach to women’s health, including family planning, wellwoman health care services, and she is also a certified menopause practitioner.

“I think it’s important for women to have providers who are committed to listening and providing great care to them as a woman, as a community member,” Reidner said. “I raised my children here, I consider Princeton my home, and I think that adds another level of care that I bring.”

As Catching Joy continues to expand its patient case, one thing Reidner would like everyone to know is that she is actively working to get credentialed by insurance companies. Right now, she can take Meridian, Multiplan, Medicare, Health Alliance, and United Healthcare. She is working on certification for: Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, TriCare, and Humana Military.

“I would ask people to be patient as we’re waiting to get credentialed. We’re actively working to get all insurance providers to credential us,” she said.

If an insurance company does not credential Catching Joy, a cash fee is charged for services.

WORKING ALONGSIDE COLLECTIVE FAMILY HEALTH

Catching Joy Midwifery also works in conjunction with Collective Family Health, which is led by Family Nurse Practitioner Kendra Poole. Poole provides care to the entire family, including newborns, well and sick child visits, well and sick adult visits, school and sports physicals, geriatric care, well women gynecologic care, and more. Collective Family Health shares an office with Catching Joy Midwifery. Catching Joy Midwifery and Collective Family Health is located at 334 Backbone Road East in Princeton and is now accepting new patients.