Parkland’s Certified Nurse Midwives play crucial role in delivering babies
Hospital’s midwifery program is one of the country’s largest
Nayeli Guerrero smiled broadly as she looked at her infant son, Jacob, born just three hours earlier at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
“When I came in last night they told me a midwife would be working with me to deliver the baby. To be honest I didn’t think anything of it, because I was in so much pain. I just wanted everything to turn out well. And it did, perfectly,” said the 23-year-old Dallas resident who delivered her second son with the help of one of Parkland’s Certified Nurse Midwives.
“The midwife treated me very well. She showed a lot of patience and really explained things to us,” Guerrero said. “The experience has been very good for me and my family.”
If the Old West or rural America comes to mind when you hear the word midwife, think again. At Parkland Health & Hospital System, Certified Nurse Midwives are an important part of one of the busiest labor and delivery departments in the nation, with more than 10,000 births each year. And, midwives have been delivering babies at Parkland since 1987. It now has one of the largest Certified Nurse Midwives programs in the country.
With this year’s observance of National Midwifery Week from Oct. 4-10, focus is being placed on 31 Parkland Certified Nurse Midwives who help thousands of mothers, families and babies each year, providing holistic care from prenatal to postpartum.
“People become Certified Nurse Midwives because they love the art of birth, and believe that birth is a beautiful and natural process,” said Janice Lankford, RN, Parkland’s Nurse Midwife Manager.
Lankford explained Parkland’s Certified Nurse Midwives are assigned to attend low- to moderate-risk births at the hospital, working in conjunction with physicians and other healthcare professionals when needed.
“Our Certified Nurse Midwives, who were once labor and delivery nurses, now strive to provide patient and family-centered holistic care,” Lankford said. “They are great examples of dedicated health providers who not only work with the mothers and babies, but the whole family.”
“Lankford said mothers-to-be are informed during prenatal care that Parkland utilizes Certified Nurse Midwives for low-risk births and a primary midwife is assigned to the patient when she is admitted into the hospital. At Parkland nurse midwives also are involved in teaching medical students, interns, family practice physicians and emergency room residents about the labor and delivery process.
According to the American Midwifery Certification Board, there are more than 11,000 Certified Nurse Midwives in the U.S. Certified Nurse Midwives are registered nurses as well as being trained in midwifery. In 2013, the last year for which data is available, Certified Nurse Midwives attended more than 320,000 births nationwide.
Among the services provided for women by Certified Nurse Midwives are annual exams, prescriptions, basic nutrition counseling, parenting education, patient education and reproductive health visits. Nationwide more than 80 percent of Certified Nurse Midwives have a master’s degree, with almost 5 percent having doctorate degrees, and they must pass a national certification exam. About 95 percent of midwives either work in hospitals or have hospital delivery privileges.
Lankford said that while some people may not be familiar with the use of midwives in a modern setting, including large teaching hospitals, many patients come from countries where midwives are the rule, rather than the exception.
Guerrero’s mother recalled that when she was growing up, the mother of one of her good friends was a midwife who delivered babies throughout her neighborhood.
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