Mid-September brought an accreditation specialist from the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers to our birth center for three full days. She combed through our files, our drawers, our charts and our employees looking for proof of strong business and midwifery practices. She has to pass her findings on to a committee for the final confirmation of accreditation but she said we were the best site visit she’s ever had and that we only had a few tiny tweaks we needed to make to some administrative details (like keeping proof of all our fire drills in a more streamlined file). It’s an exhausting time gearing up for a site visit and getting through the questions but it’s all worth it for extra assurance that we are doing all we can to offer safe care to our community. Bonus: this is the accreditation that Tricare requires for us to be in network. We are happy to sacrifice our time and effort for the families that sacrifice so much more for our freedom.
In other news, we have some staff changes. Our sweet Jaycie Wright, RN, has taken a dream job/internship in Austin on a Mother-Baby unit to gain more experience for a future midwifery path. We are bringing on another birth assistant or two to take her place but we’ll sure miss her!
Wendy, our Student Midwife, is about to progress from assisting at births to being the “primary midwife” at births (with Lenora always nearby supervising and ready to jump in). While we’ve not mapped out exactly what this looks like, the goal is that Wendy can have at least twenty births in which she’s the primary midwife by November of 2019 in order for her to wrap up her clinical requirements and sit for the boards (NARM). A few of Wendy’s previous doula clients have expressed interest in her being their primary midwife. If you’ve felt a connection with her and/or don’t mind having her lead your care during your birth, please let Lenora know. Prenatal visits would be conducted by Wendy and Lenora together and probably Lenora alone at times, so you’re really getting a team approach and not switching away from Lenora at all. Let us know if you have questions, we want everyone to feel confident about the plans for your birth. Thank you for considering using our student midwife as it helps our staff grow and will ultimately give Lenora some breathing room off call.