Crown Midwifery — An Honest Editorial Review

Among fertility clinics in California, a meaningful share of Sacramento-area patients — particularly those hoping to conceive with minimal intervention, LGBTQ+ families using donor sperm, and patients who want a continuous relationship with a single provider from preconception through postpartum — begin not at a reproductive endocrinology clinic but at a licensed-midwife practice. Crown Midwifery, a Fair Oaks practice established in 2013, fills exactly that role in the greater Sacramento region and carries a clean 5.0 rating across 14 Google reviews.

It is worth setting expectations up front: this is a midwifery practice, not an assisted reproductive technology (ART) program. Crown Midwifery does not operate an IVF lab, does not appear in CDC ART Success Rates or SART reporting, and does not employ reproductive endocrinologists. What it offers instead is something many Sacramento-area families actively want — continuity of care, fertility-awareness-based preconception planning, midwife-supported insemination within a fertility window, and full-spectrum prenatal, home-birth, and women's-health care.

About the Practice

Crown Midwifery is led by Bekah, LM, CPM — a California Licensed Midwife credentialed through the Medical Board of California's Licensed Midwifery program and a Certified Professional Midwife through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM). She is also licensed as a midwife in Hawaii (DCCA). Bekah has attended home births since 2008 and opened her private practice in 2013. She completed the National Midwifery Institute in 2012, served on the California Association of Midwives board from 2012 to 2015, and has worked as a clinical preceptor for multiple midwifery schools. Her background also includes years as a prenatal yoga instructor, childbirth educator, and doula, and a five-year collaborative homebirth practice alongside OB/GYN Dr. Anne Marie Adams.

She is supported in practice by Lauren Grace, a DONA International Certified Birth Doula who is pursuing Birth Assistant certification through the Northwest Birth Assistant Training Program. Lauren provides labor support, comfort measures, and breastfeeding assistance.

California Licensed Midwives (LMs) are autonomous primary-care providers for low-risk pregnancy, birth, and well-woman care. They are not reproductive endocrinologists and do not run IVF, egg retrieval, embryo transfer, or an embryology lab.

Services Offered

Verified offerings at Crown Midwifery include:

• Preconception & fertility: fertility counseling and screening, cycle tracking and ovulation instruction, preconception genetic screening, and partnership with sperm banks (Fairfax, Seattle, California Cryobank) including cryobank release-form completion
• Midwife-supported insemination: intrauterine insemination (IUI) with midwife support during the fertile window, including sperm-washing services
• Home birth: attended home birth and waterbirth
• Prenatal care on the standard prenatal cadence
• Postpartum care for parent and baby
• Women's health: annual physical exams with breast and pelvic assessment, Pap smears, HPV and STI screening, treatment of yeast/bacterial vaginosis/UTIs, pelvic-floor assessment, menstrual and PMS support, menopause care, and IUD removal
• Nutrition and supplements: individualized counseling and a Fullscript supplement dispensary

Specific fees and package pricing are not published on the practice website; prospective clients are directed to contact Crown Midwifery directly.

What This Practice Is — and Isn't

To be explicit: Crown Midwifery is not an IVF clinic. California Licensed Midwives do not perform egg retrieval or embryo transfer, do not run an embryology lab, and typically do not prescribe injectable gonadotropins or manage stimulated IVF cycles. The IUI service at Crown is a midwife-supported insemination performed within a naturally timed fertile window — a meaningfully different protocol from a medicated IUI cycle at a reproductive endocrinology clinic, which typically involves Clomid or letrozole, trigger shots, and monitored follicular ultrasounds. Patients who need a full diagnostic infertility workup, ovarian stimulation, IVF, egg freezing, donor-egg cycles, or preimplantation genetic testing should be under the care of a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist. Crown is transparent about its midwifery scope and welcomes collaborative care when clinical ART is indicated.

Patient Experience

A 5.0 rating across 14 Google reviews is a small but unusually clean public record for any health-care practice. Reviews for solo-midwife practices like this one typically emphasize unhurried appointments, continuity with the same provider across the entire episode of care, and the relationship-driven scheduling that comes with a small caseload. Because Bekah practices as a solo Licensed Midwife in Fair Oaks serving the Sacramento region, patients should expect a personal, small-practice experience rather than the slot-based throughput of a large REI clinic.

California SB 729 and Coverage

California passed SB 729 in 2024, expanding the state's infertility benefit: beginning in mid-2025, large-group state-regulated health plans are required to cover diagnosis and treatment of infertility, including IVF. As with every mandate, self-funded (ERISA) employer plans are exempt, and the benefit is administered through contracted in-network providers — typically REI clinics, not midwifery practices. Midwife-attended insemination and home-birth care are generally not covered under the new fertility benefit and are usually billed as cash-pay or under routine maternity/well-woman benefits when applicable. For the full national picture, see our fertility insurance mandates by state guide and the IVF cost by state breakdown.

Considering At-Home Insemination?

For patients with no known fertility diagnosis — particularly LGBTQ+ families using donor sperm and single parents by choice — at-home intracervical insemination (ICI) is often a reasonable first step before escalating to a medicated IUI or IVF cycle. ICI places unwashed, thawed donor sperm at the cervix; clinical or midwife-assisted IUI places washed sperm directly into the uterus. The two are not interchangeable, and donor sperm is sold as either "ICI-ready" or "IUI-ready" precisely because of this distinction.

MakeAMom kits are reusable, ship in plain packaging, and pair well with the cycle-tracking and preconception counseling Crown already provides. They are not a substitute for medical care if you have a known fertility diagnosis, a history of tubal or uterine disease, or an abnormal partner semen analysis.

When to Add a Clinical REI

A midwifery-led conception path is reasonable for many patients, but there are clear moments to escalate to a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist:

• Twelve months of timed intercourse or insemination without a pregnancy (six months if the egg-carrying partner is 35+)
• Irregular or absent cycles, suspected PCOS, or known endometriosis
• Known tubal, uterine, or fibroid pathology
• Two or more prior miscarriages
• An abnormal partner semen analysis
• Any plan involving egg freezing, donor eggs, embryo banking, or preimplantation genetic testing

If you are heading toward an REI consult, our how to read IVF success rates primer and the IVF overview page will make the first visit more productive.

Location and Contact

Address: 9712 Fair Oaks Boulevard, Suite B, Fair Oaks, CA 95628 Phone: (916) 365-2012 Fax: (916) 266-7555 Website: crownmidwifery.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Crown Midwifery perform IVF? No. Crown is a California Licensed Midwife practice. It does not run IVF, embryo transfer, or egg retrieval, and does not prescribe stimulated-cycle protocols. It does offer midwife-supported IUI within a naturally timed fertile window, plus preconception counseling, cycle tracking, and sperm-bank coordination. Patients needing ART are referred to a reproductive endocrinologist.

Do I need a referral, and is this covered by insurance? California LMs practice autonomously; prospective clients can contact Crown directly to schedule. Insurance coverage for midwife-supported fertility services is inconsistent — SB 729's fertility mandate generally flows through REI in-network providers, not midwifery practices — so most clients should anticipate cash-pay and verify any maternity benefits in advance.

Can I use Crown alongside a fertility clinic? Often, yes. Patients sometimes remain under REI care for diagnostic testing or medicated cycles while keeping a midwifery relationship for preconception wellness, and hand off to the midwife for prenatal and home-birth care once pregnant. Share your full care plan with both providers.

Editorial note: Independently written by the Fertlo editorial team; not sponsored. See our editorial policy.