The Midwife Center welcomes our 5th Fellow, Kellie Northam, CNM, MSN!

The Midwife Center is pleased to introduce our 5th Ruth Brexendorf Stifel Fellow Kellie Northam, CNM, MSN. Kellie started her fellowship in March 2013. Here's more about Kellie:

Kellie began her journey into nurse-midwifery in 1983, apprenticing with and then working with several different home birth midwives. She completed her nursing degree in 1992, and worked as an RN in maternal child nursing, pediatrics and home health care. After many years of working in hospital based labor and delivery units, she decided to step back from nursing and midwifery to raise her family. After raising her three daughters, she continued her education and in September of 2012, she received her Masters of Nursing in Midwifery from Frontier Nursing University.

“I have been an ardent advocate of a family’s right to access safe birth options in all birth. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a part of a wonderfully cohesive group of women and men who share my passion to be a guardian of normal birth and every woman’s right to access woman-focused health care.”

The Midwife Center developed the Ruth Brexendorf Stifel Fellowship in 2010 to address the growing demand for its services. Named after the Center’s founding Medical Director’s (Dr. Elizabeth Stifel) mother-in-law, the fellowship was designed for new midwife graduates to have up to a one-year placement at TMC that includes an extended orientation and educational and leadership opportunities. Once the fellow is oriented, she works as a full member of TMC’s provider staff for the remainder of the fellowship.

An Open Letter to The Midwife Center for Birth & Women’s Health Community

by Aoife O'Brien, CNM, The Midwife Center's 3rd Ruth Brexendorf Stifel Fellow

Working at The Midwife Center for Birth and Women’s Health has been such an honor. These words could never do the experience justice, it has been at once enlightening, frustrating, humbling, hectic, exhausting, beautiful and transient. I have climbed mountains, dragged my feet, fallen on my pillow, cried tears of frustration and tears of joy, and I have grown. In the beginning I remember Ann saying to me that I will not believe how far I have come by the end of it, and while to some degree this is true, on the other hand it is not surprising because this is exactly what the fellowship was designed to do.

Every woman coming in on her own, every woman with her partner, every expectant woman and every woman simply with a question regarding her reproductive health has let me willingly into a very private domain. They have trusted me and my knowledge, and I in return have respected them and their process; it is a beautiful exchange and I thank you for your trust.

 To each woman and family who I helped prenatally, know that to watch you grow and become empowered and hopeful, educated and insightful is a process that I absolutely love. I can honestly say that I love my job, I love being a midwife. It is my calling and to date my greatest accomplishment.

To the women and families for whom I was present at the birth of your child, baby oh baby does that make it all worth it. Being present during those hours of transition, changing identity, opening and breathing, struggle and determination, love and ultimately complete surrender, is simply a succulent treasure. Bearing witness to a woman thinning, opening, and bringing forth another life is one of the most profound moments in this life – to bear witness to it regularly, to walk alongside a woman, to be a guiding voice, to be the first hands to touch this new life, to feel that little person, the small bones of the head navigating the larger structures of the pelvis and come though crying into my hands and then immediately into the arms of its loving parents – it’s simply unequivocally sumptuous, miraculous and profound – an honor every single time.

To my fellow midwives, our amazing RN’s, all my girls in the office, the administration and of course my main man in the building, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this year smooth, fun, supportive, educational and a lot less painful than it could have been. And of course a good dose silly, I love a work place in which my laugh is recognized, frequent, and of course matched. I want you each to just stop for a moment and recognize what amazing work you are doing. Now get back to it!

I would also like to say a few words about the fellowship. Becoming a Nurse-Midwife can be a grueling process, especially in an accelerated program. I was lucky enough to have witnessed out of hospital, unmedicated birth and to know what that looks like before beginning my program. My graduate education was fantastic and there is a lot of preparation to manage complications when they arise, however one incredibly important component of being a midwife was not mandated in the process; that is to see physiological birth. This is a great injustice to Nurse-Midwives for various reasons, such as being called "Medwives," but mostly because we are defined as experts in normal pregnancy and birth for low-risk women. My question then becomes, how can we strive to maintain this baseline of normal if we have not seen it at least once in our training?

I have heard it claimed that Nurse-Midwives who come through programs like mine are scared of birth and afraid to work, that is simply not true. The vast, vast majority are incredibly eager for the possibility to practice what we believe, that birth is a normal life process, not an illness that requires intervention. The medical environment in this country makes it difficult to contend with an outlook of correcting what is wrong rather than promoting health maintenance. Therefore, it is quite challenging for us to practice what we preach, but we are trying, trying to make changes from the inside out and we are making head way, slowly but surely.

As new graduates the option of working in a birth center seems the optimal choice to practice the midwife model, however it is near impossible to get a job in one as we lack the experience necessary to manage labor and birth independently in the out of hospital setting. This is where the fellowship comes in. It maintains the ancient midwifery practice of apprenticeship, working with senior midwives who share their knowledge and do not simply ‘eat their young,’ we share the same goals of providing optimal care to women and families. As a fellow we get taken under the wing until we are ready to fly solo with so much more confidence and always knowing that there is someone behind us should we falter. It is the ideal transitional environment for a new midwife graduate wanting to practice out of hospital.

I would encourage every birth center to consider beginning fellowship programs if you have the capability to be slightly overstaffed to give that fellow what they need. It would be doing justice for new Midwives, for birth centers and their movement, and for the women who will ultimately receive their care. I am walking away from this fellowship with confidence in my abilities, a firm belief in physiological birth, a watchful eye, the humility to ask for help when needed, and a knowledge of my own limits and those of a midwife. I am so proud of the work we, as midwives, do. There is no doubt the lessons of the last year will impact my future practice in positive ways. I leave here ready for my next step, what more could we have all hoped for?

- Aoife O'Brien, CNM
 

The Midwife Center Welcomes our 4th Fellow, Annie McFarlane, CNM, MSN!

The Midwife Center is pleased to introduce our 4th Ruth Brexendorf Stifel Fellow Annie McFarlane, CNM, MSN. Annie started her fellowship in February 2013 and is looking forward to working with our clients. Here's more about Annie:

"I am originally from Seattle, where I got my RN and my MSN in Nurse-Midwifery. For the past three years I have been working as an RN in home health with children and adults, and have become a doula. The focus of my work as an RN has been caring for individuals who would otherwise be hospitalized or institutionalized, in the comfort and familiarity of their homes. After I graduated, I spent a short internship in West Virginia assisting with home births. I have loved caring for mothers and their children in the home care setting and am looking forward to supporting women and their growing families with the midwives here at The Midwife Center.

When I am not with women, I love to participate in Latvian folk dancing, bicycling, hiking, and exploring local restaurants. I also can be frequently found cooking with my husband."

The Midwife Center developed the Ruth Brexendorf Stifel Fellowship in 2010 to address the growing demand for its services. Named after the Center’s founding Medical Director’s (Dr. Elizabeth Stifel) mother-in-law, the fellowship was designed for new midwife graduates to have up to a one-year placement at TMC that includes an extended orientation and educational and leadership opportunities. Once the fellow is oriented, she works as a full member of TMC’s provider staff for the remainder of the fellowship.
 

Update: TMC Holiday Hours

The Midwife Center for Birth and Women’s Health
2012/2013 Holiday Schedule

We will be closed on the following dates during the upcoming holiday season:

• Wednesday, December 19th – Closed from Noon through the end of the day

• Monday, December 24th – Closed all day

• Tuesday, December 25th – Closed all day

• Monday, December 31st – Closing at 4:00pm

• Tuesday, January 1st – Closed all day

• Monday, January 7th – Evening appointments only from 5:00pm until 8:00pm

• Monday, January 21st – Closed all day

During these closed times, the midwife on call is available at 412-321-6880, option 5 for labor and emergencies.

Happy Holidays!

URGENT UPDATE: HB1570 to be voted on Oct. 1st

HB1570 is back and we need your help! Call your PA Representative and Senator before Monday, Oct. 1st.

We have just learned that H.B. 1570 is going to be voted on this Monday, October 1st! Please use the talking points below to call your PA Representative and Senator by the end of THIS WEEK!

Let’s send a clear message to Harrisburg that this bill SHOULD NOT be passed without the DeLissio amendment and NOT with the Cutler amendment.

Background:
House Bill 1570 began as a bill to help hospitals. It now contains an amendment, added at the urging of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, that prevents hospitals from giving full medical staff privileges to anyone except doctors, dentists and podiatrists. Further, it requires medical staff to have ultimate responsibility for each patient’s care in hospital facilities. This creates supervisory conditions of practice for all midwives and nurse-practitioners.

Stay tuned for updates on our Facebook page and thank you for your help!

To find your representative and senator click here.

What You Should Do To Show Your Support for Midwives:

• Call your representative and senator ask him/her to vote NO to HB1570, unless the DeLissio Amendment, which removes limitations on membership in the medical staff, is passed and to vote NO on the Cutler amendment which would require hospitals to apply for an exemption and would place an unnecessary legal burden on hospitals that is time-consuming and costly.

• Tell her/him that a bill that actively DENIES medical privileges to independent practitioners (like midwives) and would limit access to care across the state.

• Talk to your friends and family across Pennsylvania and ask them to join you in your opposition to HB 1570 by calling their representatives.

Thank you for taking the time to join us in ensuring that midwives and other independent practitioners are not denied staff medical privileges by law in Pennsylvania.

The Midwife Center Announces Third Stifel Fellow to Meet Growing Demand