Monday, August 30, 2010

Recipe for German Spaetzle (Spätzle)


Ingredients:
2 ½ cups flour
200 ml water
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix eggs, water, and salt thoroughly.
2. Gradually add flour, adding extra water if necessary to achieve a dough that is thick and gooey but not stiff, and not too thick to pass through the spaetzle maker, or so runny that it flows through it without needing to be "grated". Basically, a little thicker than pancake batter. I have had to add as much as double the amount of water.
3. Bring water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Add dough to spaetzle maker and "grate" into boiling water in batches. Boil each batch for a couple of minutes, until spaetzle have risen to the top and slightly grown in size. Do not overcook, or your spaetzle will be mushy (test one for doneness, if necessary).
4. Scoop spaetzle out with a colander and allow to further drain in a colander set over a bowl while making the next batch.
5. When all spaetzle are done cooking, add butter and salt to taste. Serve as a side dish, or fried up in a pan with more butter (add onion, sausage, and/or sauerkraut if you like), or bake in a casserole dish covered in cheese until golden and bubbly.

Tips:
- Do not leave the spaetzle maker sitting on top of the pot while you are waiting for your batch of spaetzels to boil. The rising steam will cook the dough left on the spaetzle maker and gunk it up, making it harder and harder to work the next batch.
- If you do not have a spaetzle maker, and want to see if you like homemade spaetzle before investing in one, you can try this: Place/hold a large, flat cheese grater (NOT the boxy kind) horizontally over the boiling water. Put about a half cup of dough on the top side of the grater. Using a metal spoon, scrape the dough back and forth across the grater until all the dough has been "grated" into the water. This is much more tedious and time-consuming than using the spaetzle maker, but it certainly works.
- Soak or rinse any dishes that have dough on them immediately in warm water. The dough hardens as it dries, and is about as easy as concrete to get off once that happens.

Enjoy! :)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The importance of teaching your child(ren) to read

Whether or not you plan on homeschooling your children, you should make it your priority as the parent to teach them how to read. It is the single biggest factor in determining their future academic success, which indirectly also contributes to whether or not they will love school/learning. Do not rely on a school or a teacher to deal with this "hassle", as many children simply do not fit the one-size-fits-all approach offered in a classroom full of kids.

As I am embarking on teaching our fourth child to read, I thought I should share some things I have learned along the way.

I am a firm believer in the phonetic approach to reading. All of our kids have had very different learning styles so far, and some took longer to catch on than others, but I think it is imperative to take the time and effort to teach our children how to actually read, rather than just memorizing the meaning of a certain arrangement of letters.

Most public schools teach the "see and say" method, with some phonics thrown in here and there. The smart kids will pick up on it, while the slower ones will struggle with reading their whole lives.

The problem with English is that it is NOT a phonetic language. In Hungarian, for instance, everything is spelled 100% the way it is pronounced. Using the same 26 letters that we have in our alphabet, plus a few diphthongs and accent marks, they have a total of 42 sounds that make up every single word. One could read Hungarian perfectly just by knowing those sounds, without understanding or even knowing a single word in Hungarian.

English is not like that. The letter "a" alone can make a half dozen different sounds, while not being spelled any differently or having any accent marks. "ow" could say "owl" or "bowl". The words "read" and "read" have different meanings depending on how they are pronounced. Then there's "red" and "read"... you get the idea.

Nevertheless, a solid phonics foundation will help decipher most words, and the rest usually have uniform exceptions.

The phonetic steps to reading are:

1. Teach the vowels and their short sounds

That's "a" as in "apple", "e" as in "elephant", "i" as in "Indian", "o" as in "ostrich", and "u" as in umbrella.

I make a point not to tell the kids that vowels can make many other sounds, because I want to solidify certain basic concepts before moving on to all the exceptions. About 80% of words follow the strict one vowel/two vowel rules. But I do teach them the name of the letters: "A [ay] says a as in apple", etc.

2. Teach the sounds of the consonants

Again, stay with one sound per letter. For "c", it is enough to teach the [k] sound in "camel", not the [s] in "ceiling".

3. Teach consonant-vowel blends

Once your child knows the five vowels, start combining these with consonants he has learned, applying the one-vowel rule: If a word only has one vowel, that vowel usually says its short sound.

For example, "ba, be, bi, bo, bu".

This is the first step where kids have to blend two letters together, which is actually a major milestone in reading. Some kids will struggle for months trying to say two letters without leaving an unnatural gap in between, ("buh-a" instead of "ba"), while others will pick it up the first time. Be consistent in not allowing your child to add "uh" to the consonants, as this will only delay their blending. "b" says "b", not "buh".

There is no rush, just make sure to work with your child consistently and in small increments. If they or you are getting frustrated, it is high time to put the book down and try again another time.

It is important that kids get to where they can say these blends without having to sound out the two letters individually, i.e. "ba" instead of "b-a". It is helpful to ask the child to think of words that begin with those blends (such as "bag, bed, bit, Bob, bug)

4. Teach consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words with short vowels.

Once children have mastered the blends in step 3, all they need to learn is to add one more consonant at the end of a familiar blend, such as "ta-g". This is usually a pretty easy step.

5. Teach the long sounds of the vowels, and the two vowel rule

When your child is very comfortable reading CVC words, it is time to teach them the long sounds of the vowels. If you have been teaching your child the names of the letters as well as their sounds, this is a quick step because the long vowel sounds are also the names of those vowels: "a" as in "acorn", "e" as in "eagle", "i" as in "ice-cream", "o" as in "overalls", and "u" as in "unicycle" or "u" as in "rule".

Then explain the two-vowel rule: "When there are two vowels in a word, the first one is usually long and the second one silent", or our kids' favorite: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking; the second one is silent - shhh!"

When the child has mastered the long sounds, practice reading words with two vowels, like "bake", "bee", "read", "Mike", "road", and "mule". Then practice how the difference between a short vowel and a long vowel can alter the meaning of the word, such as "rip-ripe", "Jan - Jane", etc.

6. Add beginning and ending blends

Next, rather just reading words that start or end with just one consonant, use consonant blends: "Blake", "flag", "camp", etc.

7. Teach sight words

There are a few words that, even with a phonetic approach, will still have to be memorized as sight words because they follow no obvious pattern whatsoever. Common first sight words include "the", "a", "I", "you", "to", "do", "from", "one".

You can make an endless number of phrases and sentences by combining these sight words with the simple one and two vowel words above, for example: "Blake fed the five pigs."

8. Teach diphthongs, exceptions, and special phonics rules

Time-wise, this last step will likely take up as much time as steps 1-7 above. Depending on which reading program you are using, there are likely a hundred or so of these listed.

They start with simple diphthongs like "sh" in "ship", "th" in "that", "th" in "think", "wh" in "what", "ch" in church, etc.

One common exception is that "s" sometimes sounds like "z" at the end of words, i.e. in "kids". Another common exception is that short words that only have one vowel at the end of the word usually say the long vowel sound, such as "we", "go", "be", etc.

Then there is a long, long list of special letter combinations, such as "ow" in "owl" or "bowl", "oo" in "moon" or "book", "ay" as in "pray" (y acting as a second silent vowel, rather than a consonant), etc.

At this point, it would definitely be best to use a successful, phonics-based reading program to make sure you cover all your bases.

During this final step, your child's reading will at some point take off to the extent that you no longer need to teach them these special rules and exceptions - they will simply figure them out and internalize them as they decipher more and more words on their own. Again, each child will have his/her individual learning style, and may do so sooner or later than another child from the same family.

Our two oldest (8 and 7 years old) both read at an adult level. This is a tremendous help and blessing, as I can simply assign them their daily school work, and they can work it independently. They also each read for a couple of hours every afternoon while I do chores or nap, and it is mind-boggling how much information and facts they take in during that time. John is on step 8 above , and probably won't be done learning all the special phonics sounds until he finishes up first grade next summer. Miriam is just starting on steps 1 and 2.

I have used and can highly recommend the following as my favorite reading programs:

A Beka "Handbook for Reading" A Beka also offers a plethora of related phonics items, which add up to several hundred dollars' worth. While nice to have for those who are independently wealthy, the "Handbook for Reading" is the only thing needed to teach your child all steps listed here. The teacher edition gives lots of tips and pointers for those new to teaching reading.

LFBC's "Beginner's Champion Phonics Reader" Same approach, not as colorful as A Beka. Good for students who are distracted by colorful pages with lots and lots of interesting pictures, or those who prefer a less "childish" approach.

Nothing fancy or expensive, and nothing that will require an addition to your house to store year after year. Patience and perseverance are the two main keys to teaching your child to read, and neither can be bought with money or ordered from a publisher online.

Bribing your student with gummy bears or other small candies for each correctly read column or line also helps greatly! :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The egg recall: Austin "Jack" DeCoster not the "Christian businessman" he's cracked up to be

Certainly, most everyone has heard of the massive egg recall this past week. 550 million eggs - that's 550,000,000 - or close to an average of 5 eggs per household in the US. Did you check the eggs in your fridge when you heard the news?

I for one didn't, because we get all our eggs from an organic farm that lets its chickens roam freely out in a pasture. The eggs are the best I have ever tasted - the yolks are huge, round, and dark yellow/orange. They are so tasty that people have asked if I added cheese to my scrambled eggs when they were, in fact, just plain eggs.

Don't these ladies look happy?

So I didn't really pay any attention to the whole egg recall. I mean, these days, factory-produced food is being recalled all the time, and it's hard to even keep up with.

Then this weekend, I must have been bored or something, I clicked on this article. My interest suddenly peaked when I came across a familiar name, "Jack" DeCoster. I had heard mention of him many times before, and it was only ever positive.


Austin "Jack" DeCoster, right, sits with Timothy O'Brien, a lawyer representing Maine Contract Farming, LLC, in 10 counts of animal cruelty stemming from an undercover investigation in 2009 by Mercy For Animals at the Turner egg farm. Maine Contract Farming, LLC, has agreed to pay $134,674.11 in fines, restitutions, and aid to inspectors after pleading guilty to the charges.


First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana and their college, Hyles-Anderson College, had lifted him up countless times as the example of a hardworking, Christian businessman who uses his hard-earned business empire to financially aid and further the cause of Christ, namely by donating large sums of money to their ministries. In fact, the "modern 1,500 seat DeCoster Dining Hall facility" at the college is named in honor of this generous donor.

Imagine my surprise when I read these news. The more I looked into it, the more apparent it became that Mr. DeCoster uses anything but integrity in his business operations. Such behavior would be unbecoming of unbelievers, even downright criminal - how much more of someone who is revered as a Christian with a burden for supporting local churches?

Could it be that this latest egg recall was simply a one-time mishap? Hardly. DeCoster has a record of violations that goes back at least three decades:
  • In 1977 neighbors whose homes were infested with insects filed a $5 million lawsuit, claiming nose plugs and flyswatters should be the "new neighbor" kit.
  • In 1980, the DeCoster operation was charged with employing five 11-year-olds and a 9-year-old by the Labor department.
  • In 1988, 100,000 chickens burned to death in a fire and were left to decompose.
  • In 1992, DeCoster was charged by the state, with indenturing migrant workers, denying them contact with teachers, social workers, doctors, lawyers and labor organizers.
  • Prior to 1993: Even before he built his first large-scale Iowa pig farming operation, Austin J. “Jack” DeCoster had already drawn the serious attention of environmental and labor law enforcement authorities. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection had brought a 14-count action against him for activities that were polluting both air and water. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had investigated DeCoster in connection with farm workers’ reports that they had been exposed to lethal asbestos in DeCoster chicken houses. There had also been a federal suit brought against DeCoster under the Migrant Agricultural Workers Protection Act, based on workers’ reports of unfit housing, and of illegal threats and harassment ongoing at DeCoster plants.
  • In 1996, federal investigators found DeCoster workers living in rat and cockroach infested housing and the egg operation was fined $3.6 million. At these facilities, federal investigators found that workers had been forced to handle manure and dead chickens with unprotected, bare hands, and that the trailers serving as worker housing were filthy and infested. Then-Labor Secretary Robert Reich described the conditions at the Maine DeCoster egg operations as “among the worst” found in the U.S. "The conditions in this migrant farm site are as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop we have seen,'' said Labor Secretary Robert Reich; "I thought I was going to faint and I was only there a few minutes,'' said Cesar Britos, an attorney representing DeCoster workers, after entering a barn."
  • June, 2000: DeCoster was named Iowa’s first “habitual violator” of state environmental laws, after losing a succession of enforcement cases brought against him by the Iowa Attorney General. At the time, DeCoster Farms’ pig-feeding business confined hundreds of thousands of pigs, and was generating more manure than it could contain in its underground pits. When the company simply spread its excess manure across open land, and transported huge volumes of it along open county roads, manure flowed into public waterways, causing hazardous pollution. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources ordered DeCoster immediately to construct concrete manure-storage structures, and assessed him a $150,000 civil penalty. DeCoster’s “habitual violator” status raised applicable penalties for noncompliance from $5,000 to $25,000 per day, and barred DeCoster from constructing any new confinement feeding operations.
  • In 2001, dead hens intermingled with live ones during truck transport sparked a complaint to the Department of Agriculture.
truck transport

  • June, 2002: OSHA imposed a fine of $345,810 on Maine Contract Farming LLC (a DeCoster business successor) and several other related entities in Turner, Maine, based on findings that they had refused to remedy hazardous conditions that were continually placing workers in danger. At the time of this OSHA action, the egg farm already had a documented history of roof collapses. Violations listed in the June 2002 OSHA order included exposed asbestos, defective eyewash stations, hazardous electrical equipment, uninspected fire extinguishers, unsanitary shower facilities, and fall hazards. Commenting on the OSHA penalty, an Auburn, Maine lawyer who had represented 80 workers in a pay-violation case against DeCoster told press that Maine Contract Farming and its associates were “still DeCoster Egg Farm,” and “still operated by Austin DeCoster.”
  • July, 2002: DeCoster Egg Farms of Maine agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought against it by Mexican workers who suffered deplorable working conditions while working at the Farms. The workers asserted that DeCoster Egg Farms had exploited their vulnerable immigration status in order to avoid obligations to comply with labor laws. The plight of the workers was so substantial that the Mexican government joined in the case, and made the case a cause celebre.
  • 2001 – 2003: In 2001, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint against DeCoster Farms in Wright County, Iowa, on behalf of female workers who reported that they had been sexually assaulted and raped by supervisors at DeCoster Farms. EEOC reviewed the complaint, and sought an injunction against DeCoster. This resulted in an order requiring DeCoster Farms to enforce federal anti-harassment and non-retaliation policies at its facility, and to cooperate with EEOC’s ongoing investigation into the facts underlying the workers’ complaint. EEOC ultimately ruled for the workers, but DeCoster would not cooperate towards a settlement payment. EEOC therefore commenced a formal proceeding against DeCoster, which ended in 2003, when DeCoster agreed to pay $1.3 million in damages to 11 workers, $100,000 to ICADV, and $125,000 to any additional victims who might be identified within a year of the settlement decree.
  • August, 2003: A. J. DeCoster pleaded guilty to federal charges that he had knowingly and repeatedly hired illegal immigrants at his Northern Iowa egg plants. The charges resembled others that DeCoster had faced and settled in 1989, for his illegal hiring practices at Maine-based egg operations. Under the terms of the Iowa plea agreement, DeCoster paid the federal government $1.25 million, and another $875,000 in restitution, to cover some of the government’s enforcement and monitoring costs at his plants. DeCoster was also required to pay for unannounced facility and record inspections at his plants, for five years following the date of his plea.
  • June, 2006: During the third immigration raid of DeCoster egg operations in Iowa since 2001, law enforcement officials confirmed that DeCoster was still engaging in illegal hiring practices at his six Iowa egg facilities. Thirty-six workers were detained in the course of this enforcement operation. 8• May, 2007: Former DeCoster manager Cacy Cantwell was granted a hearing before the Maine Human Rights Commission on his complaint that DeCoster had fired him and stripped him of company housing on the sole grounds that Cantwell is an atheist. A Commission investigator who reviewed the evidence found a reasonable basis for Cantwell’s assertion of religious discrimination. Cantwell supplemented his Human Rights Commission complaint with a separate filing against DeCoster at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  • September, 2007: Federal immigration investigators raided the same six DeCoster egg farms in Iowa that had been raided by officials in June, 2006. Children were among the 51 illegally hired workers found on the premises, this time.
  • August, 2008: OSHA cited DeCoster surrogate Maine Contract Farming for willful violations of worker safety laws, based on findings that during the prior Winter, the company had forced workers to salvage eggs from inside a dangerously unstable structure that had collapsed from the weight of ice and snow. OSHA called this company misconduct “astonishing” and “unacceptable.” For actions that exposed workers in other buildings to additional collapse hazards, and which allowed workers to operate powered industrial trucks in a way that exposed them to the risk of crush injuries, OSHA issued the egg operation two additional citations for hazards that OSHA classified as likely to result in death or serious injury to workers.
  • Workers' drinking water has been found contaminated with feces by OSHA and after a conciliatory "free" chicken banquet offered to workers, they were docked for their time eating it, reported the Portland Press Herald.
This laundry list of violations is a testament to the uselessness of the government agencies involved. Sure, they fined DeCoster's operations, but they don't seem to have succeeded at making him change the way he conducts business, or else withdraw his business license(es). I guess as long as he kept paying them high fines, they didn't mind letting him carry on (and on and on, and expand into hog farming, as well as into other states).

Now, I am not an animal rights activist by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, I would never even think of treating our dog this way, and believe me, we have no intention of eating her, nor will I particularly care when she eventually dies - at which point we will simply replace her. Animals are not human beings. I neither worship animals, nor the environment. But I DO greatly respect and care about human lives. The reason why I care about the housing and treatment of these animals is because it affects their health, which in turn affects the health of those who eat the products they provide us with (in this case, eggs), as well as the health of those employees taking care of them.

Don't let the sickly look of these chickens fool you - they lay high quality eggs, in spite of their obviously disastrous health!

The food industry in the United States must be one of the most corrupt industries in our country, second-worst probably only to the pharmaceutical industry (and the two are much more connected than one might suspect). Among these crooks, this "Christian businessman" stands out as particularly ruthless and corrupt.

Did you know that people can and do die from salmonella poisoning? Did you know that during pregnancy, it can lead to miscarriage or stillbirth? Did you know that even in the best case scenario of "just" getting diarrhea, nausea, etc. this leads to lost work, a miserable 24-48 hours of sickness, and a completely unnecessary hassle all around?

Yum, yum!!

And why? Because of someone's greed for more money in less time. How do people go to sleep in their fancy houses, drive around in their fancy cars, and live a luxurious life knowing that it is financed by the health and lives of those to whom they sell their dishonest products, and the health and lives of those whom they employ?

And then for phony pastors to lift these people up as examples of Christianity, for no other reason than that they want to keep the donations coming! As if God depends on dishonest crooks to finance furthering the gospel. Hyles-Anderson college pays most of its employees ridiculously low wages that are far below minimum wage, but offers them perks such as free tuition at their Christian schools for the employees' kids, and free meals in the "DeCoster Dining Hall", where I'm guessing they get their namesake's eggs for free or at a great discount. Wow, ruining your family and your health are thrown in for free when you work for the college!!

I guess birds of a feather flock together.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Great resource for homeschoolers

For those of you who may not know about it yet, I highly recommend the many wonderful resources found on Donna Young's website.

Donnayoung.org offers free homeschool planners, homeschool planning tips, school calendars, household planners, and printables in various subjects.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

How to find a midwife?


Many times, I get asked about how to find a good midwife, as in - what questions to ask when "interviewing" prospective midwives.

There is no easy answer to this. Many midwives could "pass" the typical questions that might come to mind, but that does not automatically mean that they are a skilled midwife.

Also, personality plays a huge part in this very personal choice, and unless a lady has had a natural, midwife-supported birth, she might not even know what type of support she is looking for during pregnancy and birth.

I have been very happy with all the midwives that have attended my various pregnancies, but I feel that each time I had to chose a new one, I knew a little bit better what I was looking for, and made a little better of a choice (although again, I felt very blessed by each and every one of them). Part of that is probably also me changing in regard to how I cope with pregnancy and labor over the years, and what may at one time have been a perfect fit no longer would be quite so perfect.

Across the board, generally speaking, I have found every midwife I have ever met or talked to to be more knowledgable than the majority of OBs, with only one exception of a lady who I considered a danger to both moms and babies. That being said, all midwives are most certainly NOT created equal, and there are questions one could ask to get a feel for the prospective midwife's philosophy on childbearing.

The thing that makes it hard to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff" is the fact that birth, by design, turns out fine the vast majority of the time whether or not a midwife is present, if mom is allowed to labor in her own timing and without interventions. The midwife is a "lifeguard" - ready to jump in if there is an emergency, but most often not needed.

Thus, even a midwife who has very little skill and/or confidence of how to handle emergencies that might arise, might have rates of wonderful births 90% or even 99% of the time. The only reason why I want a midwife to attend my birth (other than to offer emotional support and comfort) is for the 1% of the time, when her skill could mean the difference between transporting to the hospital or being able to stabilize the situation at home. It's not that some midwives don't want to learn and improve their expertise - it's just that so much of their knowledge (that has been passed down for centuries) has been lost and buried because of the choke hold that the medical establishment has had on the midwifery community. For example, in the state of Arizona, midwives are not allowed to attend women having a VBAC, twins, breech babies, and a whole list of other things. I'm not saying they don't do it, but you can see why such an environment would make it difficult to obtain the necessary training to attend these births.

Trying to extract information from a midwife about the percentage of her births that transferred to the hospital (most often for a Cesarean) and why they did it, or trying to figure out if these transfers could have been prevented, without coming across as rude, prying, offensive, or a know-it-all can be a bit of a tightrope walk. It really more comes down to reading between the lines, and judging by what a midwife isn't saying.

So yes, while there are some questions that can help in the decision making process, in the end you will just have to pray about it and rely on your gut instincts. If you are undecided between a couple of seemingly equal choices, have your husband be the tiebreaker - it is amazing how they sometimes see things and pick up on them that we might have overlooked.

Here, in no particular order, are some questions to get you thinking:

- What is your background, training, and experience?

- How many births have you attended as the primary caregiver since the completion of your training?

- Why did you become a midwife?

- What are your expectations of me regarding self-care in pregnancy? What are your views on nutrition, weight gain, etc.?

- How long do your appointments typically last? What is a typical appointment like? Where do appointments take place?

- What prenatal tests do you require? Which do you recommend? Can I opt out of any, or all?

- What are your views on pregnancy, labor, and birth?

- If you are planning on having a large family, what are her views on that? Is she comfortable with and knowledgable about caring for a "grand multipara"?

- How do I reach you? Are you on call 24 hours a day?

- Do you have a limit on the number of births you attend per month? What would happen if you had 2 births occur at once? Have you ever missed a birth? Do you work with a partner or assistants? (Note: A good midwife tries to work with a partner and/or assistants so that a double emergency where both the mother and baby need special care is not a problem).

- What is your definition of "high risk"? What conditions would you transfer me out to obstetrical care for during pregnancy ("risk me out")?

- Do you provide postpartum visits in the early days after birth? How many? How long do you provide postpartum care?

- What equipment do you normally use at births? How many times have you actually used them? What medications and equipment do you have for emergencies? What is your training in those? Are you certified in CPR?

- What complications have you seen and handled? How would you handle complications such as hemorrhage, cord around the baby's neck, baby not breathing spontaneously, shoulder dystocia, meconium, etc?

- What if I need stitches?

- How do you feel about circumcision/immunizations/etc?

- Do you have adequate medical backup? Do you rely on a particular doctor or hospital? Can I choose my own physician? (If you do not wish to be seen by male doctors, it is important to let the midwife know right away.)

- What medical complications require transport to the hospital? Will you be able to continue labor support should I need to go to the hospital?

- Do you do VBACs at home? If so, what is your outcome ratio? What are the risks of doing so? (Note: In states where midwives are not allowed to attend VBACs, twins, etc. they may not be forthcoming with this information for fear of being "turned in" and losing their license.)

- What is your fee and what services does it include? Which fees are separate (ask about prenatal care, lab work, newborn assessment, breastfeeding support, postpartum care, water tub rental, birth kit, etc.)? What about payment plans? Do you accept reimbursements from insurance companies? Which ones? (As a general rule, HMOs will not cover any part of a the midwife's fees, whereas most PPOs will reimburse her for up to 50% as an "out of network" provider.) What other costs might I encounter? (Note: In the case of transport to the hospital, physician and hospital fees will be additional.)

- Who will you bring to the birth? How long will you stay after the delivery? Do you do the clean-up?

- How do you handle PROM (premature rupture of membranes), going post-dates (approaching/exceeding 42 weeks), etc?

- What is your rate of transfers/C-sections/assisted delivery/episiotomies?

- What are complications rates? How many women end up with an obstetrician? How many for pain, exhaustion and failure to progress, how many for medical complications? What are the rates among first time home birth moms vs. repeat home birth moms?

- Have you ever lost a baby/mother? What were the circumstances? (IMPORTANT: Moms and babies have always died in labor, and will always continue to do so. It's part of life and death. Babies die at hospitals every single week, but we never hear about those cases. Any hospital in a large city like ours typically has one to two such cases every single week.)

Truth be told, I have asked very few midwives even just a couple of these questions. I prefer to get them talking without me prodding them, while I just listen and read between the lines.

If you have anything to add, please do so in the comments below.