Our Mission
Our mission is to provide personalized and exceptional care for women in a compassionate, knowledgeable, highly skilled and professional, yet loving manner, offering families a choice in birth locations and options, and serve as a training facility for student midwives and nurses. It is also one of our missions to continuously build bridges between the out-of-hospital Midwifery Community and the Medical Professions in order to increase access to medical care when necessary.
We will strive to.....
Provide holistic, dependable and compassionate clinical care for women and babies.
Offer sound advice, education and ready emotional support while respecting each woman as an individual with her own culture, history and belief, so that she can make informed choices about her care.
View pregnancy as a normal, healthy transition and a state of wellness and doing all we can to ensure that she remains low-risk.
Make birth normal; honoring the woman and the physiological needs while providing evidence based, clinically sound care centered around the woman and her family and to welcome new babies into the world as gently and humanely as possible.
Melding intuition with skill, knowledge with wisdom; trusting the process, paying attention to details, preventing whenever possible, waiting when we can, intervening when we must.
Promote midwives and the practice of midwifery; providing a setting for students to learn the art and science of midwifery.
Continue to dream and build bridges with the medical community so women and babies can have access to both midwifery and medicine when needed.
Always remember the sacredness of birth.
Midwifery Care
Midwifery care, by its very nature - partnering with women - implies that we see and nurture each woman as a unique whole combined of her physical, emotional, spiritual and social being. The Midwives practice ”physiological midwifery” – understanding and working to preserve the physiological and hormonal balances of pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum.
We realize women are seeking out personalized care and a place where birth is celebrated as a major life transition rather than a medical event. Since 2000 we've demonstrated that the presence of family, the absence of intrusions, and one-to-one care help create an atmosphere where interventions are seldom necessary.
Through the time spent during prenatal visits, you will become familiar with both the midwifery staff and the facility, which feels more like a nice bed & breakfast than a hospital. The women you see during your prenatal appointments are the ones who will be at your birth. All our practices, including privacy, quiet, low-lighting and minimal interventions, are geared to promote the physiological processes of birth. You won’t have to fight to get the things you want or worry that we’ll do things you don’t want. No hassles - just loving support of the midwives to guide you through the process.
Combining traditional and alternative approaches, you won’t have to sacrifice the special moments to have a safe natural birth!
Our Story
In June, 2007, the Oaks House (APM) birth center opened in a former parsonage house on Oaks Avenue in Chino. At that time it was the only independent, freestanding birth center in the Inland Empire operated by a Licensed Midwife. The business flourished and in September, 2009 Lori had the opportunity to move to a larger building on the same property where we practiced until 2019 when it was time to do something different. Denise and Lori moved the practice to a beautiful new location on Walnut Ave in Chino and were excited to have their own parking lot and a truly upgraded space along with better access to medical care when needed.
Lori and Denise worked beautifully together for the last 10 years and combined attended more than 2000 births! Lori retired at the end of 2021and Denise has taken over the practice while continuing to follow in Lori's footsteps and providing the same type of care. Ancient Path Midwifery continues to flourish in the Inland Empire and remains the #1 top place to have a natural birth! APM hopes to serve women and babies for many more years to come!
Safety of Out-of-Hospital Birth
evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-birth-centers/The health of the mother, comprehensive prenatal visits, risk screening, referral and/or transfer to the hospital when appropriate, continuous support and care during labor and birth is what makes birthing with APM safe.
Out-of-hospital birth (at the birth center or in your own home) is as safe as, or safer than, a hospital birth for the majority of women. Multiple studies show 85%-90% of out-of-hospital births occur without complications as well as having fewer interventions and cesarean sections and more satisfying experiences.
APM's has a very low cesarean section rate; about 6% and our VBAC rate is 75%. Most birth centers have c-section rates less than 12% and the national hospital average is 30%. Our local hospitals average 28-40%. This speaks volumes to the type of care we provide as well as the wonderful back-up physicians and hospitals we work closely with.
Our success can be attributed to our committment to excellence in caring for low-risk women and babies and not providing services that increase your risk (induction, continuous fetal monitoring, pain meds, etc). We cannot accept clients who conceived with IVF or have conditions such as insulin-dependant diabetes, high blood pressure, epilepsy, drug use, HIV, hepatitis, heart, renal and kidney diseases requiring ongoing treatment or medications, lupus, MS, a BMI greater than 35%, placenta previa (the placenta is over the cervix), or a medical problem with the baby (such as heart defect, etc) that will require special care.
Conditions occurring during pregnancy such as anemia, gestational diabetes, cholestasis, oligohydramnios, pre-eclampsia or baby in a breech position (bottom or feet first) could also cause you to ‘risk-out,’ although these conditions can often be prevented or even reversed with proper prenatal care and/or nutrition. The State of CA also limits birth services for midwifery clients ranging from 37 to 42 weeks gestation.
We provide complete prenatal care as long as you remain low risk. The focus of midwifery is to catch the little things before they become big problems that would risk you out of care. If a situation requiring medical attention arises, we will refer you to one of several qualified physicians we work closely with or you may visit a doctor of your choice.
In working within the 2014 regulations regarding Licensed Midwifery, all clients must have a care plan in place indicating where they would transfer to if the need arose. Our clients can schedule a visit with one of our consulting OBs to establish a relationship and preregister at the hospital. This way, in the event of transport you have an OB to accept you into care.
If you have a question about your “risk status”, please contact us.
For more research on the safety of out-of-hospital birth:
Evidence Based Birth on Birthing Centers
