OHMI Midwives

09/09/2026

We recognize this as a “vanity award” but we will take it!!! We’ve worked hard to gain your trust and our google reviews reflect that. Thanks to our clients and to BusinessRate | Business Rankings for taking the time to help other families find out about our services. 💕

09/09/2026

✨ SPECIAL GUEST ANNOUNCEMENT! ✨

We are SO excited to share that Jenn Kyoan McCullough Jenn McCullough of Integration Yoga with Jenn will be joining OHMI Midwives for our upcoming Comfort Measures for Labor & Birth Workshop! 💕💕💕

And listen… Jenn isn’t new to this.

She is one of the OG yoga practitioners here in Toledo! She is an incredible teacher with years of experience helping people connect with their bodies through intentional movement, breath, awareness, and release.

During our hands-on workshop, Jenn will be joining us from 10:30–10:55 AM to guide our families through movement specifically chosen to support pelvic mobility, relaxation, and releasing tension in the pelvic floor as we prepare to move into labor positions and hands-on comfort techniques.

Because preparing for birth isn’t just about learning what to do.

It’s about learning how to move, soften, breathe, release, and trust your body. ✨

I am absolutely thrilled to have Jenn bringing her expertise into this space with us, and to incorporate yoga in a way that will help you feel more confident and connected to your body as you prepare to give birth. 💕

Welcome, Jenn! 🧘‍♀️✨

✨Comfort Measures for Labor & Birth hosted by OHMI Midwives.
🗓 Upcoming Hands-On Workshop
📍Location: HHWG Toledo, Ohio

🔗 Registration/details below, and in our instagram bio:

https://www.ohmimidwives.com/childbirtheducationclasses

*** Shelly Varelli and Jenn McCullough have a long history of professional collaboration, primarily focused on integrating yoga, therapeutic massage, and wellness through co-hosting workshops, and community events that include Partner Yoga, Goddess Nights, Diva Nights, and the very first Natural Living Festival. Their partnership centers on holistic wellness, combining Jenn’s expertise as a Certified Yoga Instructor and owner of Integration Yoga with Jenn with Shelly’s background as a Licensed Massage Therapist and Birth Professional.

09/05/2026

Listen… we’re not messing around. 🔥

We believe in you.

We believe pregnant and birthing women are powerful as hell. Goddess-level powerful.

The problem? By the end of pregnancy, a whole lot of women have been given more reasons to doubt their bodies than to trust them.

We’d like to change that.

Come move. Squat. Sway. Breathe. Make noise. Get on the floor. Get on the ball. Learn counterpressure, massage, positioning, rebozo techniques, water, touch—and what actually helps when labor gets REAL.

Bring your partner, too. We’re going to teach them what to do besides stare at you lovingly and ask, “Are you okay?” 😂

This isn’t about teaching you how to be powerful enough to give birth.

You already are!!!

It’s about helping you recognize it, trust it, and giving you some damn good tools to use along the way.

We’ve got you. ❤️‍🔥

October 4 • Details + registration at the link.

09/03/2026

✨Choice matters✨

At OHMI Midwives, we support our clients care by providing access to screening, diagnostic testing, and options for everything in between.

Informed-decision making involves gathering evidence that guides how we assess and interpret what we are seeing or feeling.

The Fresh Test is an FDA-registered glucose beverage alternative that provides the same 100-gram glucose load used for the 3-hour glucose tolerance test, without artificial dyes, flavors, or preservatives.

Same diagnostic glucose load as the standard glucose drink provided at by your doctor, pharmacy, or lab. This is a great alternative. We love providing alternative options like the Fresh Test, LLC 💕

Maternity care doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all. Midwifery care for all!!! 💕💕💕

09/03/2026

💕💕💕

HOME BIRTH MOMS, WE LOVE YOU. 🤍
BUT YOUR MIDWIFE IS NOT YOUR DOULA.

And I say this with so much love for homebirth, midwifery, and the beautiful model of care that allows families to birth outside of the hospital.

Somewhere along the way, because homebirth care looks different, we started expecting midwives to wear every possible hat.

Your midwife is your midwife.
Your doula is your doula.

Those roles can overlap in how they support you, but they are not the same job.

YOUR MIDWIFE'S JOB IS CLINICAL CARE.

Your midwife is responsible for things like:
• Monitoring you and baby
• Assessing labor and maternal/fetal wellbeing
• Checking vitals and fetal heart tones
• Managing normal physiologic birth
• Identifying complications and changes in risk
• Making clinical decisions
• Carrying the responsibility for safe maternal and newborn care
• Managing emergencies and facilitating transfer when necessary
• Providing prenatal, birth, and postpartum medical care within their scope

Even when that care happens in your living room instead of a hospital room, it is still clinical care.

YOUR DOULA'S JOB IS CONTINUOUS NON-CLINICAL SUPPORT.

A doula is there to:
• Provide continuous physical and emotional support
• Help you find comfortable positions and coping techniques
• Offer comfort measures, counter-pressure, massage, etc.
• Help your partner know how to support you
• Encourage, reassure, and advocate for your preferences
• Help you understand your options without making clinical decisions for you
• Stay focused on you while your midwife stays focused on the clinical picture

And here's the important part:

Your midwife can absolutely be warm, nurturing, hands-on, encouraging, and incredibly supportive.

But that doesn't make her your doula.

And a doula can be incredibly knowledgeable, experienced, and deeply involved in your birth…

but she isn't your midwife.

We don't need to blur these roles to prove that homebirth provides comprehensive care.

In fact, I think the opposite is true.

The beauty is in the TEAM.

Your midwife shouldn't have to be monitoring the fetal heart rate while simultaneously trying to provide hip squeezes, refill your water, photograph your birth, support your partner, clean up the kitchen, and emotionally coach you through every contraction.

And your doula shouldn't be trying to take over the clinical responsibilities that belong to your midwife.

Different roles. Different responsibilities. Same goal.

You deserve a care team where everyone can stay in their lane and because of that, everyone can do their job really, really well.

Homebirth doesn't need more job titles. It needs good teamwork.🤍

08/30/2026

Sometimes the most important part of homebirth care happens after the birth. 💕

What a beautiful beginning… Fourth baby. First homebirth. First waterbirth. And a truly wonderful birth experience.

But comprehensive midwifery care doesn’t end when the baby is born and the birth pool is emptied.

We monitor the recovering parent. We assess newborn transition. We weigh and examine baby. We listen. We observe… and sometimes, what we see after the birth, or in the following postpartum visits changes the course of care.

For this family, it was at their three-day postpartum visit that we had concerns about how their little one was doing.

Baby wasn’t in immediate distress, but a thorough assessment made it clear that a higher level of evaluation was needed. We talked it over with the family, made a plan, and we headed to the hospital for evaluation.

Baby was admitted and spent three days receiving hospital care.

And now? They’re back home, together, settling in and getting to simply be a family again. 💗

This is one of the pieces of homebirth care that doesn’t always make it into the beautiful birth photos.

Continuity matters. Postpartum care matters. Newborn assessment matters.

Seeing a family at one day postpartum matters. Seeing them again at three days matters. Being familiar with what that baby looked like yesterday, and recognizing when something has changed matters.

Homebirth midwifery isn’t about avoiding hospitals at all costs. It’s about providing appropriate care in the appropriate setting, recognizing when something falls outside of what can safely be managed at home, and helping families access a higher level of care when they need it.

Sometimes we get to witness a beautiful homebirth.

Sometimes we get to help recognize that a newborn needs more support.

And sometimes, with the same family, we do both.

Welcome home, sweet baby. And congratulations to this beautiful family. 💕

📸Photo shared with permission.

08/27/2026

A recent retrospective cohort study of 21,743 singleton pregnancies undergoing routine 35 to 37 weeks of ultrasound indicates what we’ve known all along, “CONCLUSION: Routine third-trimester ultrasound screening for suspected large-for-gestational-age and macrosomia demonstrates limited diagnostic performance and appears to generate a labeling effect, whereby obstetric intervention and some adverse outcomes may be influenced more by suspected large-for-gestational-age status than by fetal size itself. These findings raise questions about the benefit of universal large-for-gestational-age screening at term and support consideration of more individualized, risk-based approaches to late-pregnancy assessment.”

Screening for large-for-gestational-age neonates at term: evidence of a labeling effect and increased intervention without neonatal benefit https://ow.ly/3Yhi50ZFs3o

08/25/2026

This incredible family had their first homebirth with us. We are honored to have been your caretakers, to be welcomed in your space, and witness your family’s love. 💕 Happy graduation day! 💕

08/25/2026

Graduation day!!! We so enjoyed getting to know this family! Third baby, first homebirth. 💕💕💕