While pregnant women across the country visit doctors every day, many don't realize that an alternative to doctor's care, midwifery, is growing in popularity.

Certified-nurse midwives visit approximately 20 million women each year and their contributions to women's healthcare have been celebrated this week through National Midwifery Week.

Sue Schlegelmilch had been a labor and delivery nurse for 12 years when she realized she wanted more out of her career.

Schlegelmilch said she wanted more of a personal relationship with her patients rather than seeing them come in and out of the hospital and never being able to get to know them.

Schlegelmilch went back to school to get her masters degree and is now a certified-nurse midwife, practicing at New Beginnings Certified Nurse Midwife Clinic in Orem. She has been practicing for a year and a half and has delivered almost 100 babies. In Utah Certified Nurse Midwives only deliver in hospitals, she said.

"Many women want the security of a hospital and an epidural," Schlegelmilch said. "But they also want more personal focus and care."

New Beginnings Clinic does a full range of women's health care, Schlegelmilch said. The clinic began with one midwife and has now grown to four.

The clinic provides a variety of services including annual exams, menopausal treatments, bone scans for osteoporosis and cervical cancer vaccines.

Sometimes a traditional doctor doesn't meet the needs of a patient. "I left feeling like a number not a person," said Julie Cornwell after she and her husband met with a doctor seeking answers to questions about getting pregnant.

Following her disappointing doctor's visit, Cornwell ran into a friend who referred her to a small midwifery clinic in American Fork.

More than 10 years later, Cornwell, a Provo resident and now mother of three and one on the way, said choosing to use a midwife was the right decision for her.

"The first time I was a little skeptical. My mom is from old school times when midwives delivered in homes." Cornwell said. "I didn't want that. I wanted a hospital experience and an epidural."

Cornwell said she immediately loved the more personal, intimate setting where people knew who she was, yet she still felt like they were doctors.

"They are very professional," Cornwell said. "There has never been a question I have asked that they haven't been able to answer. Their number one concern was me and my baby."

Following the birth of her first child, Cornwell said she was touched when the midwife thanked her for allowing her to share in the amazing experience.

The midwives at the clinic give such personalized care, Cornwell said. They are knowledgeable and compassionate and the time they spend with you is amazing, she said.

"They are there from start to finish," Cornwell said. "They don't just run in and catch your baby."



Copyright Brigham Young University 11 Oct 2007