With women, for a lifetimeTM Commendation
Ft. Collins Women's Clinic Nurse-Midwifery Service
On January 1, 1984, Karol A. Krakauer, CNM started the full scope nurse-midwifery practice at Ft. Collins Women’s Clinic. She was also one of the three CNMs who started Booth Maternity Center in Philadelphia with Dr. John Franklin in 1971 and became the first CNM licensed in Wyoming in 1973.
The Ft. Collins Women’s Clinic nurse-midwifery practice has thrived and grown to employ five CNMs including Patricia Fredericks, CNM, Stesha Iron-Kahl, CNM, Terri Leiser-Gross, CNM, and Robyn Griffith, CNM. The addition and loyalty of the two medical assistants helps further put the heart of midwifery into this practice as Dawn Perry, CMA, became the first medical midwife assistant in 1988 and provides heart and the glue of the practice. Deanna Purdy adds her great smile to that heart as well.
Many seminars for the community have been started and continued with the assistance of physicians, including the annual, and occasionally biennial, Mother-Daughter seminar, founded in 1985. The PrePregnancy Planning, and Menopause Seminars are other programs that were created to better meet the needs of the women of the area. During these 20 years, several nurse-midwifery students from the University of Colorado and Baylor were precepted by the practice as well.
The practice has been active in legislative efforts. In 1996, the Colorado Access to Care bill was introduced by state Senator Peggy Reeves at our request. This bill passed and women could access OB/GYN practices without first visiting their primary care physician. In 1998, we worked along with all Colorado CNMs to amend the bill wording to include CNMs. Clinic staff have been active in ACNM efforts service as ACNM Legislative Liaisons from Colorado for more than 15 years, and activity in Medicare Reimbursement efforts.
Championed by the extraordinary physicians in the clinic, the practice has thrived and grown. Patients for CNM care. With patients traveling from surrounding towns and as far away as Wyoming, two generations of OB patients have been delivered on several occasions. Several mothers have delivered six or seven babies in the practice. The lifeblood of so many loyal mothers has kept the heart of midwifery beating over these many years.
