Besholem Birth
Safe, intact, unharmed home birth
Licensed in New York.
Offices located in Hillsdale, Kingston, and Albany, NY.
Home visits may be arranged.
Janet Schwab
MSN,CNM
Licensed Midwife
Celebrating 40 years of midwifery practice!
Humanizing the childbirth experience for over four decades.
Mission & Values
To provide families with the advice, information, and expertise to make informed personal choices in pregnancy and childbirth so that both the physical safety of mother and baby and the psychological needs and desires of the family may be supported. Safe home birth promoted through positive prenatal care geared to individual need, nutritional counseling and childbirth education, a qualified birth attendant with access to physician consultation and hospital referral, and postnatal follow up of mother and baby.
Besholem translates to safe, intact, unharmed. I chose this name for my new midwifery practice because it so aptly describes my philosophy as a midwife. My role is to guide mothers, newborns and families throughthe pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience where normalcy is protected and supported.If health concerns arise, my knowledge and experience continues to protect the physical and psychological health of the birthing family.
About Me
I read about the nurse midwives of the Frontier Midwifery and Nursing Service in Hayden,
Kentucky in Life Magazine as a 15 year old high school student living in Queens, New York.
From that moment I found my calling. As the second wave feminist and associated childbirth
movement of the 1970s engulfed us, I sought to become a midwife like those in Kentucky,
safeguarding the lives of mothers and babies whose births I attended in their homes. Unlike
them, I wouldn’t ride a horse to reach their homes, but in all other ways I wished to emulate their expertise and dedication.
I initially practiced within inner city hospitals in NYC where I gained invaluable experience.
Later I was recruited to a wealthy suburban setting to assist the obstetricians and the hospital to meet the challenge of updating how they delivered care. Suburban women were
voting with their checkbooks and had begun traveling to NYC to access midwifery care and all
that entailed. The delivery room exchanged for birthing rooms, preps and enemas banished,
siblings present at birth, even the episiotomy was slowly being vanquished.
Later, I joined a physician family practice group in a rural setting in Minnesota where I first
provided home birth care to women, including those in an Amish community.
After so many years deferring my life goal to provide home birth care, I opened my first home
birth practice in the Twin Cities, Minnesota in 2005. In 2007, after a divorce, I moved to
Denver, Colorado, where I had attended nursing school, and opened a home birth practice
there. I have always believed that midwives should be capable to provide care in all settings.
With that in mind, I sought to gain hospital admitting privileges in Denver. I eventually achieved
this at two facilities. This allowed me to care for the home birth client who transferred to the
hospital either during or before labor as well as accept clients for care who wished to have a
hospital birth.
I have long thought about returning to New York as I have always seen it has my true home.
Along with many other midwives, I helped Dorothea Lang, CNM, pass the bill that became law,
establishing the Board of Midwifery in New York State. The 2011 law that allows midwives to
practice without the requirement of a signing supervising physician was the final piece to the
puzzle that called me home.
PASSWORD: birth2015
~Services~
Personalized Prenatal Care
You will see your midwife every 4 weeks until 28 weeks, then every 2 weeks until 36 weeks (home visit), and finally every week until delivery.
Home Birth, Postpartum Care, and Newborn Visits
Providing homebirth care, within a 75 mile radius from Hillsdale, NY.
Plan to have your midwife come to see you 1-2 times in the first week (or more if needed) and then in office for a 6 week closure of care.
Well Woman GYN and Contraceptive Care
Annual visits including complete physical exams, with screening and evaluation of medical concerns, throughout the lifespan, including the postmenopausal woman.
Testimonials
Contact Me
Phone: 518-660-7722
Fax: 518-935-9532
Offices:
9249 NY-22, Hillsdale, ny 12529
418 Broadway, Albany, NY 12207
8 North Front St, Kingston, NY 12401