Whether you’re seeking a more fulfilling birth experience or one with minimal interference, our goal is to help you achieve your desired birth experience.
Isabelle Guillou, APN, CNM, IBCLC
Certified Nurse Midwife, Lactation Consultant
Isabelle brings years of experience supporting women, babies, and families. Her journey began as a labor and delivery nurse. After a few years, she went back to school to earn her Master Degree in Maternal Child Nursing, Midwifery from the University of Illinois. Upon graduation, Isabelle practiced for a few years in a hospital-based midwifery practice before opening My Mindful Birth, a homebirth practice in the Chicago Suburbs. As a nurse and later as a hospital-based midwife, Isabelle developed a broad knowledge and experience, while as a homebirth midwife, she developed a deep passion to provide holistic, family-centered, evidence-based, and shared decision-making care to her clients. After relocating to Arizona in 2023, she is now re-opening her practice here in the East Vall
Services
Birth Done Your Way
Birth done your way
You, as the birthing woman, knows what is best for you, your baby and your family.
Holistic Midwifery
We will support you during one of the most intimate experience of your life, our care reflects our vast knowledge and mirrors your personal beliefs and birth choices.
Birth as a family event
When birth is integrated into life as a family event, the family is strengthened as well.
A Positive Birth Experience
Whether you’re seeking a more fulfilling birth experience or one with minimal interference, our goal is to help you achieve your desired birth experience.
Informed Choices
We provide evidence based information to enable you to make informed decisions about your care and treatment
Personal Attention
We not only address the physiologic aspect of childbirth; we also address your emotional needs in pregnancy and childbirth.
What Do Women Want?
Someone who is fully present, who can manage the energy in the room so that it matches yours, someone who holds your space with tranquil vibes, with an openness to witness birth a way she may not be familiar with, so you can relax and experience birth in its most natural and primal form, without belittling you or turning it into a medical intervention, or imploring fear. Somebody who holds your space energetically safe and trusting.
Someone who intuitively takes care of you, nurtures you and elevates your partner. Someone who looks at you and knows when you trust yourself and go inward. Someone who knows when you need gentle mindful guidance even when you are at your most stubborn. Someone who offers you some water, tends to your partner, answers the door so that you can move through the waves as you need to. Someone with a strong energy to counter your transitioning one … like no girl … we’re staying right here, you aren’t alone, you are ok, you can do this, you WILL do this so let’s do it! Someone who takes pictures and cleans when you want to rest with your baby.
Someone who shows strength, compassion, empathy, and courage. Someone who is honest and transparent, someone who knows your wishes and that you can trust is going to support you and advocate for your in difficult situations.
This is what we do for you!
Testimonials
What Do Women Want?
My Mindful Birth
2023 Stats (Jan – Jun)
Home Births (29)
Hospital Vaginal Births (6)
VBACs (0)
Primary c-section (0)
Repeat c-section (0)
Water labor only (16)
Waterbirth (49)
Episiotomy (0)
Shoulder dystocia (1)
Postpartum Hemorrhage (5)
First time moms (15)
Multips (71)
Risked out prior to labor (6)
Breastfeeding at 6 weeks (54)
Blog
“When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change.”
-Marie F. Mongan, founder of HypnoBirthing
They say that the memories of your child’s first moments fade so quickly. Sadly, I can barely recall the details of my sons’ first moments. Who wants to think about taking pictures…
Self-directed birth vs free birthing Natural childbirth is undergoing a renaissance of sorts as a growing number of women are electing to have normal, physiological birth, free of interventions. While most women who wants…
When you have the freedom to walk and change position in labor, it allows your birth to unfold at “your own rhythm” and lets you to respond to pain in…
“These hands are the first thing that the child will encounter. The language they speak is the primal language, the language of touch. This is how mother and child were…
The third stage of labor is a unique time when the mother and her baby create a powerful imprint of each other. This is a very emotional and hormonal process…
In the U.S., there are 3 basic types of midwives available to provide care for women. Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) A certified nurse midwife is a registered nurse with graduate education…
Prospective clients FAQs
Consultation
One of the most important decisions you have to make during your pregnancy is choosing the right provider, one who shares your philosophy about birth. To help you with this process, we offer a free 30-minute consultation to give you an opportunity to feel if we are a good fit for you. Partners are strongly encouraged to attend this consultation.
Phone, Text and Email
Phone, text, e-mail, support: our midwives are on call to answer emergencies. We appreciate if phone calls or text are limited to urgent matters and non-urgent matters are addressed via email or messages on the portal. Please note that the business phone number does not accept texts and we are not responding to Facebook messengers. Please, allow 24-48 hours to our response.
Financial Information
Because of the nature of homebirth, when you establish care with a homebirth midwife, you are buying your “spot” instead of “fee for service”. Our midwifery fee is an all inclusive fee and includes all routine prenatal visits between 10 and 40 weeks; attendance to labor and birth, immediate postpartum recovery at home; newborn care and assessment at home; 2 follow-up care visits at home for mom and baby; newborn metabolic test (PKU); newborn hearing test; and a 6-weeks postpartum visit in the office. Non-routine visits, labs, ultrasounds, consults, medications, supplements and other provider fees are additional to the midwifery fees. (Other fees may apply.) In order for the practice to attend a birth, the midwifery fee must be paid in full before 36 weeks.
Insurance billing
In order for us to provide the unrushed, personalized care that we do, we have chosen to remain out of network with insurances. We can provide you with an itemized bill for you to submit to your insurance or you can ask us to submit your claims electronically.
Your insurance benefits in a nutshell
Your insurance may cover some of the cost of your homebirth. Here are a few questions to help you understand your benefits:
Does your plan include maternity care? Does your plan covers midwives/advanced practice nurses? Does your plan covers homebirth? What is your deductible and co-pay? How much of your deductible have you met so far? When does the deductible reset? What is the maximum allowable amount?
Will your insurance give you an In Network PPO? When a PPO waiver is obtained, the claims are processed as if you were using a participating provider while the out of network provider still retains the right to bill the client what the insurance doesn’t cover.
Clients with an HMO plan, health share plan or who have a high deductible are cash pay
Our service area
We attend births in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, we travel within a 70 miles radius of Naperville. We stay South of I-90, West of I-294 and North of I-80. We go as far as DeKalb/Sycamore.
Transferring in
We only take a handful of clients per month and tend to fill very quickly. Occasionally, we are able to accept a transfer later in pregnancy. If you are transferring care to My Mindful Birth, we will need a copy of your prenatal record. You can request a copy of your prenatal record from you previous provider and bring it to the office or fill out a Release of Information form (ROI) when you come to your first appointment.
Client Portal
Our practice utilizes Clientcare, an electronic health record (EHR) which is secured and HIPPA compliant. As a client of My Mindful Birth, you can remotely access your chart via the ClientCare App portal, review your lab results and ultrasound reports, access educational handouts, view your upcoming appointments, and exchange messages with us.
Your first appointment
The initial appointment is a longer appointment which allows us to review your health and birth history, complete the necessary paperwork and financial arrangements; discuss expectations for care as well as any concerns or questions you may have. This visit is commonly scheduled around 10-11 weeks.
Prenatal visits
Prenatal visits in the first and second trimester are once a month. Once in the third trimester, prenatal visits are every 2 weeks from 28 to 36 weeks, and weekly thereafter.
The home visit
Baby will be here soon! A home visit at 36 weeks gives us a chance to talk more about logistics and setting up your home for the upcoming birth. We bring the birthing tub and birth kit with us and will check that you have everything ready. We combine your prenatal appointment along with a review of your birth preferences. This is a great appointment to include whom you plan to have in attendance during labor and birth, like a family member, friend, doula or birth photographer.
Antenatal testing
To ensure that you have a healthy pregnancy, some baseline blood work are done. We are checking for anemia, diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, urinary infection and infectious diseases. As a convenience to our clients, we collect the specimens in the office during your appointment but send the specimens out to the lab company (Quest Diagnostics). Ultrasounds are referred out.
Waterbirth
Water birth is very safe for both mother and baby. We encourage all who are interested to experience the benefits of water birth such as:
- Decreased pain
- Increased ability to cope with labor
- Easier breathing because of water vapor
- Oxygenated muscles (also reduces pain)
- Increased circulation to the baby
- Ease of mobility
- Lowered blood pressure/less anxiety
- Deeper relaxation
- Reduced tearing (which makes a much easier and less painful recovery
La Bassine birthing pools are available for rent for a small fee. When you rent the birthing pool from us, it comes with everything that you need such as a disposable liner, water hose, faucet connector, thermometer, fish net, electric air pump, and draining pump. You set up the pool, we’ll take care of cleaning it!
For more on waterbirth and tubs, visit Waterbirth International www.waterbirth.org/.
What do we bring to every birth?
We are often asked this question and we are happy to demonstrate the high level of preparedness for an out-of-hospital birth. So, what do we bring at each delivery?Literally, we bring about the same emergency equipment that is available on a hospital maternity ward or birthing center and because we never know when we are called to a delivery, we carry our equipment with us at all time.
We mostly use herbal tinctures, essential oils and homeopathy but should these remedies not be sufficient, we also carry most medications commonly used on a maternity ward such as Oxygen, IV fluids, different medications including antibiotics and medications if mom is bleeding, equipment to draw blood if needed, sutures, instruments, and Lidocaine for repairs, urinary catheters, speculum, gloves, disinfectant, bulb syringes, cord clamps, amnio hooks, flashlight. We also bring an electric heating pad to warm up bath towels for mom and baby, a rebozo, , a peanut ball and TENS.
Labor support and birth attendance
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We’ll meet you right where you are, with the unhurried attention you deserve, guiding you through the process of a natural birth. Our continuous labor support and encouragement helps you find the strength that makes it less likely for a woman to request pain medication or need medical interventions. We provide continuous support to help the new family bond as a new unit and make sure that mom and baby are adjusting well.
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The midwife or her assistant will return the next day for a postpartum visit. This first visit is typically done by 24-36 hours after delivery and a second visit is done by 36-84 hours. A final postpartum visit is done by 4-8 weeks postpartum with a focus on well women health and family planning.
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Our midwife is on call 24/7 to serve your needs or address your concerns and attend births.
What if my midwife is not available?
Even though we limit the number of clients we take, it could happen that two clients are in active labor at the same time. This is a very rare event and should this happen, we reach out to our sister practice, MidwivesCare, for one of their homebirth midwives to back us up.
What Interventions can a midwife do at home?
My Mindful Birth
The birth of a child is one of the most transformative events a woman can experience in her life. At My Mindful Birth, we believe in a culture of birth that respects women and understands the deeper aspects of birth. Our holistic approach facilitates a fulfilling birth experience. During your journey to childbirth, we will help you find your own magic in giving birth. We truly believe that you are made to do this.
Take a look around our website, learn about us, our services and about homebirth, see what people say about us. Then, call us and let start to write your birth story together. This is your time to shine!
SneakPeek Clinical Early Gender DNA
My Mindful Birth is a participating location for the SneakPeek Clinical Early Gender DNA test. You can find out the gender of your baby when you are as early as 8 weeks into your pregnancy. We can administer the blood draw and submit your sample back to SneakPeek labs for you, for just $159. This service is available to anyone. For more information about the SneakPeek, please visit the SneakPeek website at https://sneakpeektest.com. 
Call us today to schedule your appointment.
Baby Blessings
A Baby Blessing is a calming pregnancy ritual rich with meaning and beauty …a gathering created to empower and support the new mother for her journey of childbirth and Motherhood.
Opposite to the traditional baby showers, a Baby Blessing is a sacred way to focus on the new mother and her experience. In this pre-birth ceremony, friends and family gather together with the pregnant woman as she reaches the fullness of her pregnancy to celebrate the beautiful changes in both the expectant mother’s body and life. The sacred ceremony is filled with loving intentions, blessings, and honor.
Whether you’re seeking a more fulfilling birth experience or one with minimal interference, our goal is to help you achieve your desired birth experience.
Midwives do have a host of other clinical skills that they can use, depending on their scope of practice, training, and licensure. In general, home birth midwives can do the following:
- Intermittently monitor baby’s heart rate with a handheld Doppler and/or fetoscope
- Monitor the woman’s progress of labor
- Perform cervical exams as requested by the mother
- Provide physical and emotional support during labor
- Perform a newborn exam
- Suture any tears after birth
- Recognize complications and transfer a patient to the hospital (most of the time complications are recognized and women are transferred before the situation becomes an emergency)
- Administer oxygen and emergency medications
- Perform adult and neo resuscitation