EXCITING: Hospital Midwives Come Back to Wichita
We are very excited to help spread the word of some wonderful news for Wichita expectant parents: midwife-attended births are once again a reality for families delivering at Wesley Medical Center/Wesley BirthCare Suites!
As many of you probably already know, a few years back our local hospitals removed the option of having midwife-attended births for low risk women. This situation led to a great upset locally as we know parents deserve more options in birth, not fewer, and there were quite a few news articles, petitions, and protests which happened in response.
I had the opportunity to speak to Stacey Eason, CNM, APRN, the Certified Nurse Midwife who has been a big part of the efforts to reinstate midwife-attended hospital births in our area, and get all the details on her practice. Our team members have enjoyed having her presence as an RN at our clients’ labors, and greatly look forward to working with her as a primary care provider in the near future.
Where to find a Hospital Midwife in Wichita:
Stacey Eason, Rachel Cheek, and Amanda Haworth are the three Certified Nurse Midwives who have joined together with the Mid-Kansas Women’s Center, a very well-established OB-GYN practice in Wichita. Their primary location for prenatal and gynecological appointments will be their East location at 9300 E. 29th St N., with outreach locations at their Andover, Derby, and West Wichita offices as well.
What Services Can the Midwife Provide?
The midwives are pleased to provide full-scope reproductive health to Wichita area women. This means you can have your annual wellness exams, prenatal care, Wesley hospital labor and delivery, birth control options, and other reproductive concerns attended by the midwives.
Hospital Privileges for Wichita Midwives
The midwives at Mid-Kansas Women’s Center are very excited to be able to assist you in delivering your baby at Wesley Medical Center and Wesley BirthCare Suites, tentatively beginning October 1, 2020! Effective immediately, they can see you in their office for your prenatal and well-woman care.
So What Changed?
I was very curious to know - since all the protests, hashtags, and petitions several years ago seemed to no avail, what changed so that Wichita women may now have the option of a midwife-attended hospital birth? I’ll just share Stacey’s answer with you:
“Wesley hired a fantastic chief nursing officer a couple of years ago. She hailed from Houston, where midwifery care was the standard for low risk birthing people. She came to Wesley with a goal of getting midwives back in to the Birth Care Suites. She worked tirelessly to gain support and rewrite credentialing contracts to make this happen. Wesley also began a program that has in-house, hospital-employed OB/GYNs 24/7. This created a safety net for any Certified Nurse Midwives practicing in the hospital. There are still some hiccups being ironed out, but essentially, this has created an environment that will respect the scope of practice for CNMs to practice to their full scope.”
Does a Physician Still Have to Be Present At Your Deliveries?
As you may remember, a physician used to be required to be present at the delivery attended by the Certified Nurse Midwife. Now, a physician has to be available on the Wesley campus. The midwives’ backup physician, Dr. Rogers, can be available near the time of birth and come in if needed or leave when not needed.
Is a Certified Nurse Midwife Right for You?
Depending on your pregnancy situation and birth preferences, you may be wondering if a hospital midwife is the right care provider for you.
Midwifery is considered the highest standard of women’s health care, worldwide, and with 80% of pregnancies being categorized as low-risk there is little need to see a specialist unless a complication develops. Midwifery care with the backup of a physician when needed is something that all women deserve access to. All women can benefit from midwifery care and the midwives at Mid-Kansas Women’s Center have a particular heart for those who are underserved or who have felt unheard.
The midwifery practice at MKWC believes in low-intervention, physiologic birth. They also believe in shared-decision making, with a goal to help women feel empowered and autonomous throughout their pregnancy and birth experience.
What if I Develop a Complication of Pregnancy or Birth?
The midwives’ plan is to co-manage any pregnancies that aren’t low-risk with Dr. Rogers. For example, if you were to develop gestational diabetes, the OB-GYN will manage the diabetes portion of care and the midwives will still plan to attend the birth and do most of the prenatal care. An ideal situation would include every newly pregnant person being seen by midwives, co-managing as much as possible and keeping them in their care until something presented that risked them out.
Can the Certified Nurse Midwives Accept Insurance?
One of the most frequent questions we get is how to find a midwife in Wichita who accepts insurance. The midwives at Mid-Kansas Women’s Center take all insurance in the area: private, military, Medicaid and Medicare.
Meet the Midwives:
Stacey’s answer:
“There are three of us CNMs. All three of us graduated with our MSN from Frontier Nursing University. Rachel Cheek has been working in Wichita for the last 5 years at HealthCore, providing excellent prenatal and well-woman care to the women of Wichita. She is very excited to be able to finally expand her practice to include attendance at births. Amanda Haworth has been an OB nurse for several years, and graduated with her MSN spring 2019. I have been an OB nurse for 23 years, worked with home birth midwives, and graduated with my MSN fall 2019. I have also worked at Wesley as an RN for the last 7 years, giving me an excellent feel for the way things work there, and allowing me some freedom and leeway to reintroduce the midwife way. I have built strong, trusting relationships with the nurses and residents, and am looking forward to stepping into my APRN role. I have also started the process of education for certification as a psych-mental health nurse practitioner. Our community is sorely lacking in resources for people suffering with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and birth trauma/PTSD. I plan to have a specialty clinic to care for this population in Wichita. I do want to add that while midwives are most often associated with pregnancy and birth, Rachel and I especially also really enjoy seeing people for their gynecological needs. Understanding that your audience doesn’t necessarily include this, but I particularly love seeing teens and postmenopausal people for their health care needs as well.”
How to Have Your First Midwife Appointment:
The midwives at Mid-Kansas Women’s Center are taking appointments now, September 1, 2020, with hospital privileges tentatively beginning October 1, 2020. Call the office and tell the appointment desk you want an appointment with a midwife. You can ask for one of the midwives by name or be scheduled with any of the three of them.
The midwives are taking all transfers, no matter how far along they are.