Saint Peter’s University Hospital launches midwifery program

Throughout her pregnancy with her daughter this year, Parlin resident Taylor Quabeck sought a different experience than the one she’d had delivering her now-3-year-old son.

“I wanted a special connection with the person who delivered my baby as opposed to a more impersonal experience involving a bunch of different doctors," she said. "I wanted it to mean something.”

Thanks to the new in-house midwifery program that Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick launched this spring, Quabeck found the haven she’d been looking for.

“I transferred over to Saint Peter’s halfway through my pregnancy and had a great experience there,” she said.

While midwives have been part of the childbirth process since ancient times and were a popular presence in the at-home deliveries that were standard up through the early part of the 20th century, demand for midwives — who provide women with pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care as well as gynecological wellness services — has been on the rise.

Today, midwife-aided births reportedly represent some 6 to 10 percent of all births in the U.S. and are growing, a fact that led the Saint Peter’s team to launch its own in-house midwifery program in April.

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Range of options

Part of New Jersey’s first state-designated Regional Perinatal Center, “Saint Peter’s is well-known for its expertise in handling technical, interventional and high-risk pregnancies and deliveries,” said Edwin Guzman, M.D., Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Saint Peter’s, a 478-bed acute-care hospital that delivers over 5,600 babies each year.

“At the same time, we wanted to offer a diversity of services, embrace other approaches and give women more options.”

Assuming that patients are healthy and at low-risk, “we can honor their request to give birth in their own way and with whatever level of intervention and pain management they desire, experiencing labor in as natural a fashion as possible with or without a doctor’s presence," he said.

"At Saint Peter’s, a woman can give birth with a midwife almost like she’s at home, with the assurance of knowing that the high-tech world and a strong team of physicians are right next door.”

With two certified nurse-midwives on staff and a third to join their team later this year, Saint Peter’s in-house program represents an unusual service not seen in most hospitals.

In New Jersey, “the majority of midwives are in private practices and are affiliated with different hospitals but aren’t typically owned by a hospital,” said Saint Peter’s certified nurse-midwife Jennifer Santos, who noted that Kennedy Memorial Hospital at Rowan University represents the only other New Jersey hospital she’s aware of that operates its own in-house midwife program.

As a former childbirth educator who has delivered hundreds of babies throughout her career, Santos knows the physical and emotional value that midwives can bring to women before, during, and after the birthing process.

“The term midwife literally means ‘with women’ — we’re where they are physically and emotionally, and studies have shown that the presence of such a support person decreases labor time, cesarean rates and requests for pain relief while increasing patient satisfaction,” Santos said. “Midwives can also provide a lot of care to women prenatally at clinics, city health centers and boutique practices.”

“We can provide many of the same services as well-woman and ob-gyn care practitioners with less medication and intervention,” added fellow certified nurse-midwife Joanne Cunha, who also has delivered hundreds of infants and helped launch Saint Peter’s midwifery program. “We really listen to women and can offer them more natural methods of pain relief and other tools during labor.”

Santos and Cunha aren’t oblivious to the perceptions many people have of midwives based on long-standing depictions presented in the media.

“While midwifery is a bit of an anecdotal field, with tips passed on from older to younger generations of midwives,” Santos said, “our profession prides itself on being evidence-based and we practice based on rigorous standards and research as well as on information and techniques passed from midwife to midwife.

"Ultimately, we have an extensive toolbox of techniques we can offer, work to educate women on their choices, and then help honor those choices to the extent that clinical circumstances permit. We work in collaboration with physicians and spend time with each patient discussing their pregnancy, life and family, creating a rapport so that we can make a strong team.”

“These relationships can be very close,” added Cunha, who said that patients often stay in contact by phone or social media after delivery.

For Guzman, the new midwifery program offers patients a sense of security as well as expanded freedom of choice.

“At Saint Peter’s, we have five high-risk pregnancy specialists on site and patients can engage with a physician at any time,” he said. “They don’t just get a midwife, but a team. It offers a lot of flexibility and the best of all worlds.”

More personal

It did for Quabeck, who successfully delivered daughter Maliah on Aug. 12, with Cunha by her side.

“I saw Joanne every two weeks throughout my pregnancy and then every week as we got closer to the due date,” said Quabeck, who said that along the way, Cunha shared information on what was going to happen as well as tips on diet, exercise and how to care for the baby after birth.

“Joanne, Jennifer and the whole team were wonderful — very caring about their patients’ feelings and what we wanted and they made me feel so comfortable. Joanne went down the road with me the whole pregnancy and was so uplifting and supportive. Childbirth is a very special event and Joanne provided a special connection. Having someone close to you during pregnancy and birth made everything more personal.”

That’s what drew Cunha to the field.

“I enjoy the more hands-on, emotional, relationship side of the business and love the interaction with the patients,” she said. “It’s exciting to be part of Saint Peter’s new program and to be able to offer women the option of a low-intervention approach to delivery that’s still in close proximity to the best of technology and medicine.”

Guzman agreed.

“Now, women can come into the hospital and get what they want,” he said of the midwifery program and Saint Peter’s soon-to-open Birthing Center, which will be overseen by a midwife director and physician director and feature two dedicated rooms, each outfitted with a kitchen, jacuzzi tub, queen-sized bed and other comforts.

“We hope to become a center for midwifery and alternative birth and bring things back to a more natural birthing process,” Guzman said, adding that the program welcomes midwives in private practice and makes available a pool of physicians with whom they can collaborate.

“It’s exciting to be moving into our new space,” added Santos, “and powerful to be able to extend this service to women and bring all of Saint Peter’s resources to bear.”

For more information about Saint Peter’s University Hospital (254 Easton Ave., New Brunswick) or its new midwifery program, call 732-745-8600 or visit www.saintpetershcs.com.