THE MIDWIFE CENTER FOR BIRTH & WOMEN’S HEALTH

I am so happy to have this opportunity to educate everyone on what we do at The Midwife Center. I have worked there for 8 years as a nurse and lactation consultant, Cheryl Bradshaw RN, BSN, IBCLC.

The Midwife Center’s team of five state-licensed nurse-midwives provides pregnancy and birthing care for women and families and well-woman gynecological care from puberty through menopause. TMC’s well-woman care is designed along the “preconception model” to ensure healthier pregnancies in the future. Each of TMC’s midwives is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM), a registered nurse with additional education as a midwife, and licensed by the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine.

The Midwife Center’s unique home-like and safe environment welcomes women and families from all backgrounds. Its high quality and personalized care along with its innovative programs, such as its walk-in “With Woman Fridays” program, have had a significant impact on reducing health disparities for women by addressing the obstacles that discourage some women from seeking quality care. The Midwife Center clients, as midwife clients do nationally, consistently experience fewer c-sections, low-birth weight babies, induced labors, and premature births as compared to the national average. The Midwife Center statistics for women on Medical Assistance (about 20% of its clientele) are consistent with its total clientele and national birth center statistics.

HISTORY AND MISSION OF THE MIDWIFE CENTER

Since 1982 The Midwife Center for Birth & Women's Health has provided exceptional women's health care to thousands of women living in the tri-state area. The Center has welcomed more than 4,000 babies into the world. The Midwife Center’s mission is to provide exceptional woman-centered pregnancy, birth, and well-woman care in southwestern Pennsylvania’s only independent birth center. This approach emphasizes client and family education and prevention-oriented care, and distinguishes The Midwife Center as a respected women's health care provider in the region.

For much of its 27-year history, The Midwife Center (TMC) has operated as part of a larger parent hospital, recently as part of Allegheny General Hospital. In early 2000, Allegheny General announced a restructuring plan that eliminated several non-core operations, including TMC. The Center’s staff, clients, and community members immediately organized to build a new, independent, non-profit birth center. As a result of this community and foundation support, The Midwife Center purchased and renovated a new facility that was opened and granted state licensure and national accreditation as a birth center in 2003. In March 2009, The Midwife Center celebrated the 500th baby born at the new center. We are currently backed up by UPMC Mercy and are enjoying our relationship with their OB Department.

At the birth center, state licensed nurse-midwives provide full pregnancy and birthing care, well-woman gynecological care and educational classes for women from puberty through menopause. The midwives care for women in labor and attend births at the birth center, as at Mercy Hospital where the midwives have admitting and discharge privileges. TMC staff calls upon medical specialists when necessary, including 24-hour physician back-up.

TMC has a demonstrated commitment and proven track record to serving women who do not have adequate healthcare services. In order to meet this commitment, TMC created its Women’s Health Fund in 2005 to support outreach and care to women who are under and uninsured, and as a result, the percentage of women who receive pregnancy and birthing services at TMC who are under and uninsured has increased to 20%. These women have consistently experienced the same excellent outcomes as women who have private insurance in the practice. The Women’s Health Fund has also provided continued support for TMC’s innovative With Woman Fridays that provides a variety of high quality and personalized healthcare and support services to women vulnerable to poor health outcomes during walk-in hours every Friday. The goal of With Woman Fridays is to increase better health outcomes for women who experience barriers to good healthcare.

Women and families come from over a 60-mile radius of the Center, including urban, suburban and rural areas, as well as from all socio-economic, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds to experience and benefit from the personalized services and programs of The Midwife Center.

Furthermore, a 1991 study conducted by the American College of Nurse Midwives demonstrates why The Midwife Center is uniquely situated to help increase breastfeeding rates in lower-income communities. It concluded that “CNMs make a substantial contribution to the care of women of all backgrounds, and in particular to women and infants from a variety of underserved and vulnerable groups—such as the poor, adolescents, minority ethnic groups, women of immigrant status, and/or those living in medically underserved areas.” TMC has a demonstrated commitment to women from these backgrounds that is illustrated with the Center’s outcome statistics for births that continue to surpass national statistics for all of its clients, regardless of financial and personal background.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT A BIRTH CENTER?

Across the country, midwifery has made a tremendous resurgence. In Pittsburgh, midwives work in a variety of settings, but The Midwife Center for Birth and Women’s Health in the only state licensed and nationally accredited freestanding birth center in the region. Birth in a freestanding center combines excellent medical care and a high level of safety with a unique and satisfying birth experience.

The home-like and family-friendly center houses three birth suites, each with its own large bed, bathroom and jacuzzi. Family members, partners, and children are all encouraged to be active participants in the birth experience. A woman can involve as many or as few people as she chooses to make her birth experience as meaningful as possible.

At a freestanding birth center, midwives are able to provide care that truly adheres to midwifery philosophy. Such care minimizes the need for intervention and contributes to the outstanding safety records of midwives. Midwife Center clients consistently experience better outcome statistics than women and infants nationally. In 2008, 18.9% of women had c-sections, compared to 31.8% nationally. Only 2.1 % of the babies had low birth weights, compared to 8.2% nationally and only 5.3% were born premature, compared to 12.7% nationally.

Additionally we offer 6 weeks of follow up calls to all our first time and at risk moms. This is a generously grant funded service we offer and I am so happy to be selected to fulfill this position. I call all first time moms and those who did not meet their breastfeeding goals with previous children. I also have a list of moms I check in with for general postpartum support and especially those we find at risk or already coping with post partum depression. Starting in September I will have 2 days a week to bring in clients for lactation appointments.

Thank-you to Christine Haas our executive director who supplied the information for this article.