As coronavirus lingers, home births surge. How midwives are adapting.

Katrina McHugh was planning to have her baby in the hospital, but then the pandemic hit. 

At her 36-week checkup, her doctor recommended a home birth due to Ms. McHugh’s concerns about safety. She gave her the phone number for Katie Bramhall, a local midwife with over 30 years of experience.

“I called Katie, and she was just wonderful,” Ms. McHugh says. 

But because the COVID-19 crisis was unfolding so quickly, that first appointment ended up being done by phone. Contractions came a week later, and Ms. Bramhall joined Ms. McHugh at her home, located up a remote dirt road in South Royalton, Vermont. This wasn’t Ms. McHugh’s original plan, but she was