Midwife is a term that dates back to the 13th century. But midwives are still on the job today.
If you'll pardon the play on words, we labor under the misconception that only doctors will be there to deliver babies.
"A certified nurse midwife is a professional that's trained in both nursing and midwifery. We provide primary care to women of all ages and to infants as well,” said Tina Doyle, a certified nurse midwife.
Doyle says there are certain pregnant women who might be better candidates than others when it comes to having a midwife in charge of childbirth.
"Some women prefer a special birth plan, women who are of low risk. They may choose midwifery care for that individualized non-traditional approach to child birth,” said Doyle.
In fact, a substantial number of expectant moms choose to have nurse midwives in attendance when the child is born.
"Nurse midwives performed about 320,000 births in the U.S., were midwife attended births. And what a lot of people don't know is that about 97 percent of those midwife attended births are in hospitals or birth centers that are attached to hospitals like we have here at Castle,” said Doyle.
It isn't all schooling that brought Tina Doyle to her profession. She had a midwife helping her when she had her baby and because of the positive experience, decided that was the career path she wanted to follow. She says midwives bring a different perspective to the birthing process.
"We approach delivery as a natural process with the least intervention possible. We do try to spend a lot of time with our patients, create a relationship with them, have trust and ultimately our goal is to have a healthy mom and healthy baby and that's what we strive for,” said Doyle.
