The Birthing Place

I delivered my son with Janna 3 weeks ago and I love being in her care. I was scared but determined to deliver naturally and really wanted a personal relationship with my care provider. I did not want to feel processed nor did I want to be subjected to all the «standard of care» procedures.
Janna, Viktoria, Tammy and Leann are all wonderful, loving ladies! They guided me through my pregnancy with a gentle, caring touch and when it came to delivery I felt properly prepared and fully capable of bringing my son into the world.
Unfortunately, my birth did not quite go as planned and we ended up having to transfer to UVA for intervention. Janna never left my side. She stayed with me and made sure both myself, my son and my husband were safe and healthy before leaving.
I absolutely could not have ask for more or better care from anyone. Janna and her team gave me everything they had and continue to do so postpartum.
If you have been blessed with a new baby and want your care and a birth that is natural, personal and filled with love, this is the place to come.

I have nothing but great things to say about The Birthing Place.
My husband and I moved to Charlottesville shortly after finding out we were pregnant. After some lengthy searching for prenatal care and a place to give birth, we decided on the birthing place and am so glad that we did!
Janna and her team, Viktoria, Esther, Adrienne are welcoming, friendly, knowledgable, and at every prenatal appointment I felt like top priority– because they all actually care. I really wanted a relationship with the people who were going to be there for the birth and received more than I could ask for.
I had a pretty normal pregnancy and expected a pretty normal delivery (whatever normal means) but it was a lot harder than I expected. The labor was slow, so slow– and wouldn’t have survived without their kind words of encouragement and help. Finally when things started happening Janna realized my son had shoulder dystocia, which meant she had to assist in birthing him because essentially he was stuck. She was amazing and it was incredible to see them all in action when things got hard. My son was born and healthy thanks to them, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
If you’re looking for a personalized, prenatal experience, and a birth supported by caring, professional midwives look no further. Charlottesville is really lucky to have The Birthing Place.

I delivered a beautiful baby boy in August 2014 under the supervision of Janna, Kim, and their team of assistants. My experience here was exactly what I was looking for; low intervention without connections to wires, tubes, or monitors. I had many other less invasive options to help manage my contractions such as aromatherapy, massage, a jacuzzi tub, physio ball, my own music playlist and most importantly my Hypnobirthing training. It was so nice to be home the evening of my birth with my baby. I certainly never felt rushed to leave and received excellent attention as I was prepared to go home with my new baby. Janna came to my home the next day to check on myself and the baby. She was very readily available by phone or text throughout my prenatal and postpartum care. The facility itself is outstanding; very clean and gives you a home-​like feel. The staff is prepared for emergency situations with the necessary equipment kept close by and convenient back entrances should emergency services need to be involved. My prenatal and postpartum care was excellent and easy to schedule. They offer evening appointments, allowing my husband to attend without missing work. The appointments themselves were very thorough and focused on important, but less often discussed in a traditional obstetrics practice, such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, and breastfeeding.
Overall, I would highly recommend The Birthing Centre to anyone fitting the criteria of a low risk pregnancy looking for a caring, well-​trained team of midwives and staff to provide a low intervention birth for you and your baby.

My second baby was the first one born in 2013 at the Birthing Place. The experience was so fantastic that I am back for my THIRD baby (due in late April)!!!
There just aren’t enough words in the English dictionary to describe how wonderful my experience was with Janna and her team. They take their time with every single appointment and I never once felt rushed (unlike the prenatal care I received under a medical model with my first baby which left me searching for The Birthing Place). They are so knowledgeable and were extremely helpful with every aspect of preparing for labor, and caring for myself and my unborn baby up until then.
My labor was fantastic. Baby girl came in just under 4 hours and I labored at the center the majority of the time. There were candles and I chose to labor in the huge tub until it came time to push. Janna poured some lavender in the tub and I will always associate that smell with my sweet angel. She and Adrienne were with me the entire time with encouraging words and gentle touch just when I needed it. I had no issues at all. My baby was healthy, as was I and I never once felt scared or at risk. I’m 100% confident that if something had gone wrong it would’ve been handled in the safest most effective way possible. I had no issue transferring if that’s what my condition warranted and I felt secure that Janna and her team would make that call correctly.
Janna came out to my house after having my baby. I live 45 minutes from the center and she insisted on coming to me to check us over and make sure we were well. I love this place and these people are like my family. I would recommend them to ANYONE wanting something wonderfully different, special and safe for themselves and their sweet babies.
I am also willing to be a reference.

My baby was birth #80-​something at the Birthing Place in early spring of 2013. All of my prenatal and postpartum care was also done at the Birthing Place.
Cliff Notes:
My experience could not have been any better. Janna and everyone else at the Birthing Place was knowledgable, consistently pleasant, and quick to respond to emails and phone calls. My prenatal care was fantastic, just the kind of natural care I was looking for. My birth experience there was absolutely amazing, Janna and her team were nothing short of perfect. My postpartum care was truly above and beyond anything I could have expected. If you are looking for natural care I cannot recommend The Birthing Place highly enough.
The LONG version:
Prenatal Care
I never felt like my appointments were rushed, each question I had was answered and explained thoroughly. Being my first pregnancy I had A LOT of questions. Every pregnancy side effect I had (including nausea, indigestion, fatigue and headaches among others) Janna would offer homeopathic cures, supplements and dietary changes, and as a last resort over the counter medicines or suggest prescriptions to ask my doctor about. My husband and I were given a list of possible prenatal tests and we were able to choose what we wanted to take. All samples were taken at the Birthing Place and sent out to the lab, the only time we had to go somewhere else was for the two ultrasounds we elected to have. Birth procedures and options were discussed in detail and I really felt like the entire team was willing to support me and help create the birth experience I wanted to have.
Labor and Birth — as much as I’m willing to share here anyway.
I started labor at 2am and labored at home until almost 6am. Janna and her team met us at the birthing place and we had every labor aid at our disposal that we had previously discussed. There was always someone by my side giving light touch massage or pouring water over my belly.
We ended up having what is considered an obstetric emergency, but Janna and her team handled it beautifully. Those were the scariest moments of my entire life and I couldn’t have asked for more capable, supportive, loving group to experience it with.
Note: EMTs were called but by the time they arrived the situation was handled and my baby and I were doing well. I’m grateful that they were called, to me that indicates that all possible precautions were taken.
Postpartum Care
The postpartum care I received was absolutely amazing. Janna recognized my baby’s tongue tie the day she was born, and we had an incredibly tough time breast feeding. When the ENT specialist we saw in town didn’t recognize her tongue tie and basically told me to «toughen up», Janna researched other specialists and not only made us an appointment within 24 hours, but accompanied us to Richmond to meet this doctor (who was able to diagnose the tongue and lip tie, fix it, and improve our nursing situation 100% in that single visit). Janna called me at home several times to check on us between postpartum visits. I simply cannot imagine a more supportive caregiver during that time.
In response to the other review:
That sounds like a pretty terrible case. If that is a warning then this is encouragement to at the very least look into the Birthing Place for yourself. I know for a fact that Janna has had LOADS of happy clients, in her birth center and as a home midwife.
I am happy to be a reference if you are looking into the Birthing Place as an option for you.

I was a client of the Birthing Place in 2011. When I signed the contract and paid my fee of $ 3600, I expressed my concern about how it stated in the contract that if there was a complication and I had to give birth in the hospital, my money would not be refunded. Janna explained to me that if that were to happen, she would accompany my birth in the hospital as my doula, which would be a great source of support and comfort. Unfortunately, she did not live up to this promise.
My water broke before active labor bagan. She asked me if I could feel the baby moving, and I said no. She had me get on the floor with my butt up in the air and stay there until she drove to our house. She instructed my husband to put on a glove and reach up my vagina to see if he felt the cord. She was concerned that the cord had been pinched when the water broke and the baby had died. I was in tears and my husband was panicked. I felt like I was in a nightmare. She called the hospital and told them about my condition and if they should send an ambulance. They said there was nothing to worry about. I later told my gynecologist, who used to be a mid-​wife, about this and she thought it was completely ridiculous that she had me do that. It really got my labor off to a terrible start. Once I was at the center, Janna performed many interventions and techniques to «jumpstart» my labor. I had read Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth, and know that frequent cervical checks is not recommended, which is exactly what I got by Janna while I was there. After 18 hours, Janna stopped coming into the room. I wondered why she wasn’t coming in to check on my anymore. I started to get really upset about this. I felt like she didn’t care anymore. Eventually she sent one of her employees, whom i had only met once at a pre-​natal appointment to tell me that I had to go to the hospital or I was putting my baby in danger. We drove to the hospital, and Janna helped me breathe through the contractions during the car ride.
This was where her support ended completely. When we got the hospital, she was no support or help whatsoever. When I was deciding to get an epidural, she did not have much advice to offer one way or another when I asked her. Once again, I felt emotionally and physically abandoned by her. After I got the epidural and pitocin and fell asleep, I was woken up by a surgeon who told me to to get on my hands and knees and breathe oxygen because my baby’s heartrate plummeted. I The surgeon told me they were going to take me in for a c-​section or my baby would die. I was terrified, and I had nobody there to comfort me during the ordeal. Janna went home after I fell asleep and told my husband to go home and sleep because in her opinion it would be at least 10 hours before I had the baby. She was wrong and very irresponsible for saying this, and I was pretty upset that she left without checking on me or telling me that she was leaving. Thankfully, my breathing worked and the baby’s heart rate recovered so I avoided the c-​section. I called my husband and told him to come back because I was fully dilated and ready to push. The delivery nurse was being very rude to me, and told me that I would have to push the baby out on my back. I called Janna at home and begged her to come back to be with me while I pushed. She refused and told me she was «too tired». I successfully had a vaginal birth a couple of hours later, but was very angry for months afterwards because of what Janna did to me that night. I confronted her about why she left that night and refused to come back and she said again that she just couldn’t stay up any longer. She told me that she was sorry my birth didn’t work out the way I wanted, but «shit happens». I considered taking her to court for breach of contract, but don’t want to go through the experience while my baby is so young. I just want to leave the experience behind me.
I warn other women about going to the Birthing Place to have their babies. It says in the contract that Janna will be your doula at the hospital if you have to transfer, but from my experience she will take you to the hospital and abandon you there before the baby is born. I know that at her center transfers to the hospital is quite common. I was her 12^th client and out of those twelve, about eleven of us transferred to the hospital. It sounds like her line in the contract about accompanying the mother to the hospital as a doula is a falsehood. She’s a pretty good businessperson, and will convince you that her center is the place to give birth, but unfortunately her performance did not live up to the promise and image that she portrayed beforehand. It’s a shame because I am not against birth centers, and Charlottesville desperately needs an option like this. Unfortunately this is not a good option and I wish I had never gone here. It made my birth experience much worse than it would have been otherwise.