2025 - 2026 Annual Midwifery Statistics

Licensed Midwives in FL are required to submit our outcomes annually, between July 1st through June 30th. While all of these statistics here share the overall outcomes in my practice, remember that each and every one belongs to someone's story. These stories keep me going year after year after year! So get ready for a year's worth of adventures, midwife-hangs and so many stunning photos it may make your head spin!

Total Clients who Delivered with Meadow Midwifery between July 2025 - July 2026 = 26

~ 2 doula support births, with planned hospital delivery

~ 24 clients planned home births

~ 11 repeat clients!!

• 2 very special clients had their FOURTH babies with Erica!

Home Birth stats - Out of 24 planned home deliveries:

~ Spontaneous vaginal deliveries: 91.7% - 22 of 24.

~ 14 home deliveries - 58.3% (14/24)

~ Water births - 35.7% (5/14)

~ Transfer rate overall - 41.7% - 10 total hospital deliveries among those initially planning home birth

• 5 antepartum transfers - 20.8%

• 5 intrapartum transfers - 20.8%

• 0 postpartum transfers - 0%

• 0 newborn transfers - 0%

~ Overall cesarean rate: 8.3% - 2 of 24, both primary cesareans. One for breech presentation & one for placental abruption at 35wga

~ VBACs: 2 of 2 planned = 100%

~ Primip (first time parent) & primary VBAC (no prior vaginal birth) spontaneous/vaginal delivery rate: 88.9% - 8 out of 9 successful vaginal deliveries in those without any prior vaginal births!

~ Female babies: 14 (Queens ruled this year! Maybe we are witnessing the matriarchy reemerging?!)

~ Male babies: 12

~ Smallest baby: 6lb9oz (Peep the silly baby coming out rump first, giving me a run for my money!)

~ Biggest baby: 10lb2oz

~ Preterm births: 2

~ Earliest full term GA: 37.1 (This poor client had the flu, two days leading up to her birth and was still recovering when her water broke in the middle of the night while coughing!!)

~ Longest GA: 42.1

Birth Variations - from preterm to postdates, from cephalic to breech, babies emerge in all sorts of ways. Some as smooth as butter ... and others, well... can be a bit more dramatic than that. So, in order from least stressful to adrenaline surging, here are the complications experienced this past year. These are the things I’m calling my midwife friends at 3am after leaving a birth that left me buzzing & rattled… Yes, after 15 years of birth work - I can still experience that cortisol crash!

~ Rh negative: 6

~ GBS positive labors: 2

~ Gestational Diabetes: 2 - Both well-managed through diet & exercise, following all monitoring protocols to ensure healthy fetal growth as well as fetal glucose readings postpartum.

~ Nuchal cords: 5 (this reflects the number of babies who had a nuchal cord, not the number of loops around a neck! Highest number of nuchal cord loops, was 2x)

~ Pre-Eclampsia: 1

~ Newborn resuscitations: 2

~ Breech births: 2

• 1 planned cesarean following unsuccessful ECV

• 1 accidental breech at home, was visualized cephalic presentation just 12 days before delivery and was palpated to be head down at final appt, 5 days before onset of labor

~ Postpartum hemorrhage w/ IV started: 1 -This was a well managed postpartum hemorrhage, that didn't quite reach the blood loss required to officially label as such, but will describe as a hemorrhage here in my stats for context; this mother did not require a transfer of care.

~ Shoulder dystocia: 3

~ Placental abruption: 1

Now that we’ve gotten the stressful things out of the way, let’s move on to the fun details and behind the scenes aspect of midwifery!! These are usually the stats that I talk to friends & family about, you know, to spare them from the crazy and/or gory aspects of my day to day - Like, “Oh my gosh I had two births this month and BOTH babies were born shrouded in their amniotic sac, how cool!!” … Or, “Can you believe I get to go to Omaha to support my friend for a second time?!”

Midwife Mileage

~ Town with the most births - Brooksville

~ Average distance within radius - 46 miles

~ Closest birth - Spring Hill, 3 miles away from my home

~ Farthest birth - 1,425 miles away from my home, for a very special repeat client, turned friend, turned family, so that I could be her doula through her second birth! I caught her first baby at home, and for a number of reasons she needed to plan her second birth in the hospital. I am so grateful and honored to have been able to wholly catch her baby, next to her amazing OB who remained completely hands off. I’m still riding the high of this experience, ngl!

~ Farthest birth within radius - Apollo Beach & St. Pete. Both clients were equally 68 miles

from my home in Spring Hill.

Unique Stats!

~ Grandest multip: G8!!

~ Babies that didn't wait for the midwife to arrive: 3!

~ En Caul births: 3!

~ Sunrise babies (between 5-7am): 8

~ Sunset babies (between 5-7pm): 4

~ Midnight babies (between 10pm - 2am): 6

~ One very polite little girl, decided to begin labor the morning of her due date, and scheduled to have a visit with my client - as I show up for our appointment, she is well into labor and already 9cm!! She had her baby within the time I would've still been there for our routine appointment!!

~ 1 birth assisted for a midwife friend - Who's client had the two of us present for her last 3 babies!!

(cries in midwife joy )

I’ve always believed that our statistics should tell the whole story… not just the easy parts. Birth is beautifully unpredictable, and from time to time it asks us to change plans. I think a large facet of trusting birth means respecting it enough to acknowledge that periodically, unexpectedly hard things do happen. This year's numbers represent real people, real families, and real outcomes.

As I was putting together this year's data, I realized there’s something else worth celebrating... May 2026, I reached my ten-year anniversary as a licensed midwife!! Ten years of middle-of-the-night phone calls. A whole decade of holding space through uncertainty, joy, heartbreak, and absolute triumph. Ten years of driving back roads before sunrise, missing holidays, and rearranging plans. Answering the phone whenever families need me, remains to be one of the greatest privileges of my life. To all of my clients - thank you for trusting me with your strength, your vulnerability, and your babies. I promise, it’s an honor I will never take for granted. But I continue to look forward to serving this incredible community for (hopefully) many years to come.

These past 15 years in birth work have been a profound mentor; disintegrated rocks of certainty, fertilized the soil of wisdom, and rooted the morals that have enriched the midwife I've blossomed into. But perhaps one of the most reticent, yet robust message is this… statistics only matter when we're honest about what they represent. The meadow continues to be deeply nourished by an infinite number of tears shared, smiles exchanged, miles driven, whispers of encouragement, toes stamped, espresso shots consumed, hands held, and teeny fingers wrapped around mine... all uniquely imprinted upon my soul and tattooed on my heart for eternity. Until the next sunrise!