Allegheny Health Network is expanding its Nurse Midwife Services with a newly opened office in Penn Hills.<\/p>\n
As the practice grows, providers are working to educate patients about what modern-day midwives do. A \u201cmidwife\u201d doesn\u2019t have one specific definition, which is why there are misconceptions about what they do.<\/p>\n
At AHN, all certified nurse midwives can provide care to low- to moderate-risk patients. CNMs also provide routine gynecological care and resources, such as birth control options, and can take patients from puberty to post-menopause.<\/p>\n
Amy Gramz is the midwifery supervisor at AHN, based at Jefferson Hospital. She was a labor and delivery nurse for about 16 years and has been working as a midwife since 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take more time in understanding the why behind it \u2014 that gives me the ability to provide care throughout the entire process, developing that trust and building it with them,\u201d she said. \u201cI was only seeing (patients) in the birth process. I wanted to get to know them a little more to help their birth experience better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rodi Road office joins AHN\u2019s other midwifery care locations in Peters, Uniontown, Brentwood and AHN Jefferson Hospital.<\/p>\n
Patients at the new midwives\u2019 practice will deliver babies out of Forbes Hospital, AHN said.<\/p>\n
If someone chooses midwifery care rather than traditional OB-GYN in the birthing process, Gramz said she and the midwife team get to know them, including their family background, potential anxiety surrounding the process and any history with trauma, to help put them at ease and help them navigate the process.<\/p>\n
Midwife misconceptions<\/p>\n
At AHN, the midwifery team provides Pap smears, contraceptive counseling and treatment for routine gynecological issues. CNMs are trained in primary care as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I view it is just a more tailored approach,\u201d Gramz said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do anything without physician support \u2014 we collaborate with our physicians when we need to; we can take care of women with maybe a little bit more moderate risk because we have support with the physicians within the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the benefit is you get the safety of medical intervention with the comfort and convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said this is one of the main drivers for more local people seeking out midwives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe follow the same guidelines as physician care \u2026 we take time in our visits, a little bit more than the physicians do,\u201d Gramz said, which allows for more tailored patient care. \u201cIt\u2019s allowing them to take the time to ask the questions and seek out trauma-informed care. That\u2019s a lot more conversation-based to develop that trust. We do respect their right to choose, which the physicians do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often, this means that she and the midwifery team might see one patient for five or six years \u2014 from the time they get their first pap smear to when they\u2019re having a baby.<\/p>\n
Diana Shane became a midwife in 2011 and began working at AHN Jefferson in 2017. Now, she\u2019s part of the new midwifery team on Rodi Road.<\/p>\n
Midwifery care is different depending on the person, according to Shane.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people seek it for an unmedicated birth,\u201d said Shane, 45, of Gibsonia. \u201cMidwives specialize more in supporting unmedicated birth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Pennsylvania, midwives have to be board-certified, so the team at AHN all started as registered nurses who went back to graduate school for midwifery care, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe term \u2018midwife\u2019 can get a little confusing,\u201d she said. \u201cPennsylvania is one of the stricter states; you have to be a nurse midwife to practice within the state and receive approval through the [state] Board of Medicine, the ability to prescribe and take care of women in hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the main misconceptions, Gramz said, is that people think midwives are against medical intervention overall and would prefer holistic care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are extremes on both ends,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to give someone that ability to have a say in their care, take the time in office visits to find fears, tailor and give a more personal approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
If someone wants a more holistic birth, Gramz said she will help the patient seek out those resources and develop a birth plan throughout pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can take care of pregnancy, as long as it\u2019s normal and not high-risk,\u201d Gramz said. \u201cThe only thing we cannot do is a C-section or surgery. Then we would involve (physicians).\u201d<\/p>\n
The midwifery team at AHN offers certified in-hospital births. However, if a patient wants a home-based birth or freestanding birth, she said the team will recommend other options.<\/p>\n
\u2018Growing by the day\u2019<\/p>\n
Word-of-mouth recommendations are integral to obtaining patients, according to Gramz, at least at Jefferson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they call in, what we\u2019re working on right now is what kind of care you\u2019re looking for. Break down those barriers of understanding what a midwife is, what they do, what they can\u2019t do. We\u2019re hoping to get more of a presence by fall,\u201d Gramz said of the midwives employed there, so that patients have more availability for appointments.<\/p>\n
Shane agreed that word-of-mouth recommendations are integral to obtaining patients at the new Penn Hills location.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really neat to watch it grow, watch it flourish and have that service available to the community,\u201d Shane said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allegheny Health Network is expanding its Nurse Midwife Services with a newly opened office in Penn Hills. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-537051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}