What a year 2016 turned out to be! I’m very thankful for the many clients I was privileged to work with, and for the many special memories that were made. When it comes to births, 2016 was extremely unpredictable, and I’ll be thankful if 2017 isn’t quite as adventurous. We had one very early baby, one very late baby, a set of twins, a baby that came so fast we didn’t make it in time (!), and about everything in between. 🙂
A few highlights and items of interest from the past year:
– Great birth team and back-up midwife:
Rose Marie, Lynelle & Myself with twins!
I was grateful to have the ongoing help of my current student, Lynelle Martin, as well as the help, support and back-up services of Midwife Rose Marie Spicher. These ladies are great to work with! Since relocating to PA several years ago, I have really missed the network of midwives that I used to assist and work with, and Rose Marie has been such a blessing to fill this niche. I’m grateful to know that clients are in caring, capable hands during the times I need to be off-call or out of town.
– Opportunities to further my education: Attending one day of Midwifery Today’s International Conference in Harrisburg, PA was a great way to meet up with other
Bridge Certificate
midwives, listen to lectures on issues and complications during labor, and make new friends in the midwifery world. I also had the opportunity to attend the Midwives Alliance of PA Educational Retreat, where we spent two days learning about a variety of subjects such as congenital heart defect screening, perinatal mood disorders, atypical findings in newborn exams, and more. Updating my Neonatal Resuscitation Certification and CPR at the local Mt. Nittany hospital is always a great way to get better acquainted with the closest hospital in my area, and I enjoy the learning opportunities these occasions afford. Finally, towards the end of the year, I submitted the needed proof of 50 hours of continuing education credits in certain areas (pertaining specifically to emergency and complications during labor and immediate postpartum) and applied for and received my “Midwifery Bridge Certificate”. This ensures that my education and training as a Certified Professional Midwife are also up to the standards set forth by the International Confederation of Midwives to ensure competent and qualified care for women.
– Addition of CCHD screening at postpartum home visits:
Trying out the Pulse Oximeter
One new requirement for midwives providing out-of-hospital births in PA is that of submitting Critical Congenital Heart Disease screening result along with newborn blood screening test. This year Gentle Delivery added a Pulse Oximeter to our kit, and we’ve been successfully performing this test on all of our babies since this fall. We’re happy to be able to try to offer our moms and babies a full range of services-did you know that free hearing screenings are also now available for our clients?
– First Public Event: “Birth Expo 2016” & “Why Not Home?” Film Screening
Celebrating Birth Expo 2016
We are attempting to help educate the public on the full variety of choices they have locally when it comes to birth-this includes support (such as doulas), care providers (CNM’s, CPM’s and OBGYN’s), choice of birth location, and resources that help them to succeed in parenting (such as breastfeeding and babywearing). With these thoughts in mind, Gentle Delivery hosted the first “Birth Expo” for Centre County in July 2016. We were very excited about the support of over 30 businesses and birth professionals that came together for the day, and we’ve received alot of positive feedback from parents who found out about resources they didn’t know were available in this area. Viewing the new film “Why Not Home?” also provided a way for more families to hear about the option of home and midwife-attended birth. The big question now is whether to host something similar in 2017…if we did, would you be interested in helping to make it happen? Please contact me with your interest!
– New Resources in the Library
The library in the prenatal office continues to grow, with more books and resources added in 2016. Some of my personal favorites include “Redeeming Childbirth” by Angie Tolpin and “Your Best Birth” by Rikki Lake. Check out the list of Recommended Reading to see all of the titles available for clients to check out.
– Gift bag for Newly Expectant Moms
Helping moms to connect with local support services and resources is something we are passionate about! Due to being located in a university town, many of the families we interact with don’t have any family or previous connections in the area. One way we have attempted to help with this is by giving each family who comes in for an initial interview a free bag full of samples from natural-minded companies, coupons, and lots of cards, brochures and information from many area birth professionals and mommy/baby-centered support groups and businesses. If you or your business would like to be included in this welcome bag, send us an email or message and let us know!
– Our own special gift to new babies… 
And while not necessarily “important” news, we’ve had fun giving our babies in 2016 special onesies to commemorate their big event! I have fun taking the time to make each of these little shirts for our babies, and clients in 2017 can also look forward to this little “thank you” gift that we pass on to our families. 
Thank you for allowing us to serve you all in 2016, and blessings to each of you as you head into the new year! Remember, too, to follow this blog for future updates, “like” us on Facebook to receive current info and informative articles (Gentle Delivery), and watch for our photos of new arrivals on Instagram @gentlemidwife . We’d love to keep in touch!
Gentle Delivery Midwifery Services (Centre Co. PA) 
Kelsey, Just curious, with the mention of unpredictable births, I was wondering if you had a lot of posterior positioned babies? I only ask because my little one, born 3 weeks ago, was that way and all three of my sisters had the same issue with their deliveries this year. Talking to my midwife today, she said she looked at her records and 50% of her births this year were posterior and a doctor from the hospital in town made an appt. with her to discuss re-positioning babies during labor because the hospital had a high incidence of the same position. Just checking to see if it’s confined to our town or if you had more than usual too. – Amy
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 8:15 PM, Gentle Delivery Midwifery Services (Certified Professional Midwife serving State College, Bellefonte & Centre Co. Pennsylvania) wrote:
> gentlemidwife posted: “What a year 2016 turned out to be! I’m very > thankful for the many clients I was privileged to work with, and for the > many special memories that were made. When it comes to births, 2016 was > extremely unpredictable, and I’ll be thankful if 2017 isn’t quite ” >
That’s really interesting, Amy…and so sorry you had to experience a posterior labor and birth. That sounds rough!! That didn’t seem to be as much of an issue for my ladies this year, though position was a problem-but more persistent breech instead of posterior. They all ended up turning before birth, but caused some stressful moments as the moms were trying all kinds of things to get them to move. Some of the other issues were things like pre-term labor, really late babies, and babies that didn’t want to move down. Sigh. I’m hoping this year is better, especially because I’ll be having one, too, and would rather look forward to a straightforward birth myself. 🙂 Just as a side note, I’ve had many fewer persistent posterior babies since taking Gail Tully’s Spinning Babies class on Positioning Techniques. She has a series of positions/exercises called the “3 Sisters” that works wonders when babies are posterior during labor. It was worth every penny I spent to take that class in terms of mom’s comfort and labor length that has been minimized in the past two years. Blessings!