If you get a chance, please check out this story by John Stucke about Kathy Bentley, a certified nurse midwife in Spokane who delivered her 1,000th baby this week.
I'm a bit partial. Kathy delivered my second child and she was indeed wonderful.
She and the other midwives at Deaconess Women's Clinic (Cathy Shields and Lauren Armstrong) are amazing women who have helped empower many mothers in Spokane.
Nurse midwives don’t just deliver babies; they provide health care for women from adolescence through post-menopause. They provide everything from preconception counseling and family planning to breastfeeding education. “We advocate for nonintervention and the enhancement of the normal,” according to the Deaconess Women’s Clinic website.
Of the total 4,138,349 births in the United States in 2005, 7.4 percent were attended by certified nurse-midwives, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. This accounts for 10.6 percent of all vaginal births.
Any others out there who had a midwife at the birth of their children? What was your experience like?
This blog is intended to provide a forum for parents to share knowledge and resources. It's a place for parents young and old to combine their experiences raising families into a collective whole to help others.
