Length of Service: 1976 to present

The Athens Regional Nurse-Midwifery Practice was established in 1976 to ensure access to prenatal care to women in the community. The midwifery model of care was the vision of the hospital, the health district and the medical community as they worked together to meet the needs of the uninsured. This partnership and the commitment of the nurse-midwives produced a 66% reduction in infant mortality in our county from 1980 to 2000. Our commitment to the health and well-being of families in our community continues to demonstrate itself in innovative programs.

This year we will implement the Centering Pregnancy Program featuring a group for Spanish or English speaking expectant moms. For women without a third party payer we offer a "Self-pay Package" that allows women to receive the care they need and make payments throughout the pregnancy. The maximum out of pocket expense is $1000 and includes office visits, diagnostic testing, ultrasound and treatment of medical complications. Fifty percent of the women we serve are eligible due to their undocumented status.

In the summer of 2003 our practice agreement, with the same group of physicians that provided back up when we started in 1976, came to an end. The escalating cost of malpractice insurance and resulting increase in consulting fees made continuing the agreement cost prohibitive. Our hospital administration has always been proud of the contribution we make to the community and continued to demonstrate their support for our service by accepting our recommendation for a hospital employed physician dedicated exclusively to the Nurse-Midwifery caseload. This model allows us to provide the continuity that is so beneficial to the women we serve.

We value an evidenced based approach to care and patients are assigned to a provider based on their health status. We utilize a primary provider approach to care in which the admitting nurse-midwife provides continuity in care throughout the first 20 weeks. This approach facilitates establishment of the data base, follow up on initial problems and routine screening and the opportunity to assimilate the women into the practice.

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to provide care to women who were actually delivered by one of the nurse-midwives in the early days of the practice. Most of our patients seek out our care based on the recommendation of a friend who is an established patient. As evidence that we embrace "the heart of midwifery" a patient said it best in her response to my question regarding her birth. I asked, "Did the baby come easy?" To which she replied "yes" and I remarked, "Not many women can say that… what is your secret?" She replied, "I had the midwife!" We continue to admit patients to labor and delivery ourselves and provide labor support to all the women in our caseload.

We serve a diverse population and have looked for diversity in our team as well. The composition of our staff reflects the population we serve with one-third of the staff being bi-lingual and comprised of members from various countries of origin including Nigeria, Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba and the United States. To promote longevity among the nurse-midwives we offer a student loan re-imbursement program and the average tenure for our nurse-midwives is 6 ½ years. We look for depth in training and our team includes nurse-midwives that are also trained as a lactation consultant, family nurse-practitioner and registered diagnostic ultrasonographer and public health professional. The expertise and comprehensive nature of our team contributed to our group comparing favorably in the 2003 Benchmark Project.

We have worked with students from the nurse-midwifery education programs at Emory and the University of Florida. We are all members of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.