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At Community Hospital North, midwifery care has become an important part of taking care of moms and babies. Our certified nurse-midwives use a special approach that combines the best of home births and exceptional hospital care. Since 2019, the midwifery team at Community has grown and continued to improve the health and safety for mothers throughout their pregnancies and births. With National Midwifery Week upon us, we’re excited to celebrate the midwives who work so hard to improve maternal health outcomes.
The midwifery program at Community began in 2019 with a small but dedicated team of four certified nurse-midwives (CNMs): Helen Bean, Kristi James, Jill Kocher, and Li’Toia Kendrick. They saw how many low-risk women needed care that was more personal and less focused on medical interventions.
"Community recognized the need in this area for high touch/low intervention care for low-risk women. Many hospitals, including Community, have high tech availability and can treat the sickest patients in town, but we cannot forget that pregnancy and birth are normal variations in women's health," says Megan McDonald, CNM and APP midwife lead.
By 2021 and 2022, the midwifery team had grown to seven midwives, allowing them to deliver comprehensive care for a growing number of patients. In fact, the midwifery group is now on track to deliver over 500 babies this year, a huge increase from their early days of fewer than 100 births a year.
What sets midwifery care at Community apart from other health systems is how they mix home-birth ideas with hospital safety. Some of the midwives have helped with out-of-hospital births or even had their own children outside the hospital. This helps them support women who want a natural birth, but also want the security of hospital care nearby in case it's needed.
“Community Health Network midwives strike a nice balance between the out-of-hospital and hospital worlds. We know how to hold space for women that desire low intervention, but like the idea of having intervention close by if needed,” Megan explains.
This approach not only caters to women wanting natural, low-intervention births, but also provides comprehensive care for those who want or need more medical support, such as pain management or monitoring for risk factors. The midwives collaborate closely with OB/GYNs and maternal-fetal medicine specialists to make sure each patient has the care plan that’s right for them.
One of the most remarkable outcomes of the midwifery program at Community is the reduction in C-section rates and increase in successful vaginal births after cesarean (VBAC). While the national C-section rate hovers around 30%, our midwives boast a total C-section rate of just 12%, with a primary rate of 7%. Their VBAC success rate stands impressively at 78-80%.
By spending more time educating patients, the midwives create an environment of trust, allowing women to make decisions that are best for them and their families.
"Our 'strategy' is to consistently practice within the midwifery model of care. Two important concepts of this are informed consent and shared decision making," says Megan. "We believe that building rapport and trust with patients is the key to true shared decision making. Women learn that they can trust our recommendations and also feel empowered to make choices that feel best to them."
As the team looks to the future, the midwifery team hopes to continue growing as Community expands its services to more communities. The group also hopes to see a culture shift, as more nurses and medical staff embrace midwifery practices that emphasize patient-centered care and shared decision-making.
This National Midwifery Week, we celebrate the hard work and dedication of midwives like Megan McDonald and the entire team at Community Hospital North.
“Midwifery is not a new concept and it is definitely gaining popularity in the US, but we still have a long way to go to integrate midwifery into the current healthcare system. Midwives are often viewed as an extension of the medical model, but we believe in delivering care in a different way. Community's mission of ‘Exceptional care. Simply Delivered.’ is such a great way to describe what the midwives are doing.”
Through their efforts, Community Health Network is helping to redefine what compassionate, high-quality maternity care looks like. Visit eCommunity.com/midwife to learn more.
