Bayside Health Association welcomes Katie Lawrence as nurse midwife
Bayside Health Association has hired a new nurse midwife, Katie Lawrence, to begin in January 2012. Lawrence, a graduate of Yale University School of Nursing, will be providing women’s health services, including labor and delivery support, menopause visits, annual examinations, pap smears, prenatal health, sexually transmitted disease checks, and family planning at both offices of Bayside Health in Sussex County. Lawrence will also attend births at Beebe Medical Center with the backup support and consultation of Dr. Vincent Killeen, Dr. Steven Berlin and Dr. Leo Eschbach.
The first week of October is National Midwifery Week, and Bayside Health Association celebrates throughout the month by collecting toiletries and unused cosmetics, which are then donated to Sussex Pregnancy Care Center in Georgetown. Items can be dropped off at either office through the end of December.
Many people are unfamiliar with nurse-midwives and their position in modern healthcare. It is not unusual for some to think that midwives only deliver babies at home, or are solely proponents of natural childbirth. Yet, nearly 10 percent of babies born in the United States are delivered by nurse-midwives in collaborative practice with obstetricians.
While in some circumstances a midwife may still deliver newborns in the home setting, the role of the midwife in today’s society has evolved to include hospital births, birth-center births, primary care, well women care and full prescriptive authority. Certified nurse-midwives in the state of Delaware can practice as independent practitioners and are licensed as registered nurses.
The approach of collaborative practice models between physicians and midwives is a response to the anticipated shortage of maternity care providers, especially in rural areas like Sussex County, and the potential effects of healthcare reform challenges. Bayside Health Association now employs four certified nurse-midwives and three obstetrician/gynecologists.
