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A Deep Calling by Lauren Cox CNM

Lauren is the newest member of the midwife team here at the birth center. She is a recent graduate of the school of nurse midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.   In her spare time, Lauren enjoys spending time with family and friends, being outdoors, international travel, playing piano, Latin dancing, and being a member of St. Joseph County Right to Life.     Why midwifery? This is often asked when I share with others what I have been pursuing the past few years.  I suppose the answer is summed up as this: When you feel a calling deep within your soul, you cannot always explain or understand why, but because you are known by a God who knows your heart’s deepest dreams and desires, you respond and trust.  As I reflect on my desires as a child, I never imagined this journey of life would bring me to such a sacred place of caring for new families and being the first to hold a precious new life in my hands. I distinctly remember as a young girl, learning about the immense p
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When The Midwife Gives Birth… When a midwife is pregnant she gets lots of questions about her own preferences surrounding her own pregnancy and birth. LOTS. OF. QUESTIONS. Morgan De Kleine CNM, a midwife at Fairhaven OBGYN graciously answered some of those questions for us to share with you.          Which midwife did deliver your baby? Our son was delivered by Anne, under the supervision of Beverly. They both did a great job taking care of us, and we were happy that we got two midwives for the price of one! Sara and Julia were working at Fairhaven that day, so they came by to visit us at the end of their office day. We also had a wonderful team of nurses caring for us. Diana assisted during our birth, and Charlene cared for us after the birth. Elizabeth and Charlene did our home visits at 24 and 48 hours after the birth. What is your birth story? This is the short version! I woke up at 3:30 am with contractions. Within an hour, they were 2-3 minutes apart, a
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For a new year... by Betsy Black

As the women gathered around the table there was laughter. I slid into the last open place at the head of the table, all 8 chairs full. It was unexpected how strongly I felt the warm squeeze in my chest. I had gathered together these women, on this night, in this place so I could share these words. These were the women I worked with every day. Women dedicated to serving the childbearing families of our community just like me. It had been a year of hard work, uncomfortable conversations, and change. Stress held us hostage sometimes. Like any group of people working together we are susceptible to negativity and resentment fueled by miscommunication. We needed a reminder, a call to attention of sorts to stop and choose grace, kindness, and positivity. We are still getting to know each other, our work relationships deepening and trust building. Each of us holds the common thread of our commitment and passion for birth, but we also each have a life at home. Lives where we ar
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Mothers Are My Heros by Beverly Lowther CNM

As a midwife, I get a chance to take a small glimpse into the lives of mothers to some extent and what they do for their children.  Having no children of my own, I don't understand the full concept of what it is to be a mother. I feel though that it gives me a “outside looking in” perspective. I have been able to observe mothers and mothering in many various aspects from family, to friends, and clients and just in our culture in general. If I am honest, mothers are my heroes. I really do feel that mothers are critical part to causing life change and influencing our world. Changing a diaper or wiping the face, or taking someone to soccer may seem insignificant in your mind or may become routine; but for a child it is the world because it is the future. The time that you take to read a book, to listen to a story they tell you even if it doesn't make sense, to pay attention to them in the small moments of life can impact them for life. It is so easy in the fast pace of life t
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Betsy: Mother, Teacher, Doula, and Midwife

                         I took a very circuitous route to becoming a midwife.  When I first went to college I didn’t have a strong pull toward any profession, but I did like to do art, so that became my major.  At one point, my grandfather pulled me aside and said, “Your grandmother was a teacher, your mother was a teacher and you should be a teacher, too.”  I know he meant well, but as a typical teen, I didn’t really like to follow unsolicited advice, so not only did I stick with art, I made sure not to become an art teacher.  Fast forward to several years after graduation.  I was pregnant and knew the people to see when pregnant were midwives.  I sought out a group of midwives and saw them for my prenatal care.  At one point they asked if I planned to take a birth class, and steered me toward Bradley classes.  Within minutes of the start of the first class, I knew it was the right class for me, and I thought maybe someday I should teach it.  So when my daughter was 2 years old
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Thanks Mom by Beverly Lowther CNM

Funny to think that I never imagined that I would ever be in the medical profession, but my mom influenced my direction by persistently persuading me toward being a “midwife”.  At that time, I knew little of what that word even meant. Since taking my mom’s advice (mothers, never downplay your wisdom and influence on your children) , it has been a journey of realizing truly how well this role fits my adventurous personality because literally there is no day that is the same.   Having a strong desire to serve, I had the opportunity to teach prenatal education classes to women who were low income or in crisis pregnancies prior to my midwifery career. It was during this time, it became very clear to me how influential education and support had on a woman’s experiences and outcomes for pregnancy and birth. I witnessed first-hand the difference between women who invested time to take prenatal education and those who didn’t: in how they labored, how they made choices, and even how they c
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I believe in VBAC- thoughts from a midwife

“Once a cesarean, always a cesarean.”  That often-heard adage does not reflect the reality of birth today.  While it can seem astoundingly easy to end up with a cesarean surgery for the birth of a baby (roughly 1 in 3 babies in the United States are born this way), finding a provider to support a TOLAC (trial of labor after cesarean) and VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) can seem astoundingly hard, depending on the part of the country you live in.                  There’s always things out of our control that contribute to cesarean section being the choice way to have a safe birth for mom and baby: a baby coming breech, a pregnancy of twins where the first baby is coming breech, baby’s heart rate in labor becoming abnormal, placenta over the cervix, mother having certain active infections, some medical conditions of mother or baby.  Despite all this, the World Health Organization says the number of women birthing by cesarean should be closer to 10-15%.  I am happy to be part of a
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