(Certified Nurse Midwife Care Goes Beyond Labor And Delivery by Kim Amsley-Camp, certified nurse midwife at Keystone Women’s Care, first appeared in the Public Opinion Newspaper in 2013. To read it online, visit www.publicopiniononline.com.)
Looking for an alternative or a way to complement your care by conventional obstetricians or gynecologists for women’s health needs? 
Today’s certified nurse midwives aren’t just for labor and delivery only. They provide care for the whole woman throughout her lifetime.
What is a midwife?
The word midwife means “with woman” and offers care for all of a woman’s health care needs throughout a woman’s lifespan—from young women to post-menopausal women. As an advocate for women, midwives perform annual exams, contraceptive management, STD testing and counseling, exercise counseling, breast cancer screening, preconception planning and care, care for gynecologic conditions such as urinary tract infections or incontinence, care during pregnancy and childbirth, and delivery of babies. Certified nurse midwives are registered nurses with an advanced practice degree, or master’s degree, in midwifery and are able to write prescriptions. The practice of midwifery is recognized in all 50 states and has been practiced in the Pennsylvania since 1929.
Focus of care
For midwives, the primary focus is to help women be as healthy as they can be. As experts in pregnancy and health education, midwives look to provide care to women in a holistic way and see the whole woman as she is in her family. This partnership is to help women with any health issues and work together to meet the woman’s needs. Midwives call it high touch, low tech care because they aim to help the woman be healthy with minimal interventions. The goal of a midwife is to build trust and give women faith in their bodies. Care by a certified nurse midwife is evidence based—midwives are very interested in outcomes and provide research based care to patients.
Co-managed care
For some women, additional care may be needed when a complication arises during pregnancy. At that point, midwives are able to co-manage patients along with obstetricians and gynecologists or if needed, other specialists, to provide the patient with a multidisciplinary approach. While some midwives practice independently, many of today’s women’s health care providers and practices offer care by certified nurse midwives along with traditional practitioners. At these practices, patients receive a multidisciplinary approach to care which is very beneficial for women.
Midwife services are covered by insurances including Medicare and Medicaid. For more information about midwives visit www.mymidwife.org.
Kim Amsley-Camp, CNM, is a certified nurse midwife at Keystone Women’s Care located at 830 Fifth Avenue in Chambersburg.
