From the WBWC Blog:

Month: June 2017

Maybelle’s Birth Story

By Holly Lindsay-Miller It was a Wednesday, late December, 2009. I was perusing WBWC’s website, reading the short bios of all the midwives. I didn’t know who was going to be at my second birth. The baby always chooses and so I was fine with whomever. As my eyes scrolled, I stopped on Sarah Akers (now Dumas) and read that she had attended nursing school at the University of Cincinnati, where I had gone to college. She graduated the same time I did. And so, it was meant to be. That’s my midwife, I thought. A couple hours later, reading in bed with my toddler asleep next to me and a pillow in between my legs, my water broke. I cried quietly. This was forever going to change the relationship I had with my first born. I knew it and she didn’t, laying there next to me precious and unassuming, a sleeping child. I phoned the midwife on-call and it was SARAH!  “Head’s up, I just gushed some water outta me AND OH MY GOSH, SARAH, WE WENT TO THE SAME SCHOOL!” If you know Sarah she had a steady, comforting reaction, though I’m not certain she was as excited about our alma mater as I. She thought I’d be in later that night as this was my second pregnancy and the first was a steady, easy 12 hours. Ah, but don’t these kids have a mind of their own from the get-go? I was not doing much in regards to laboring. So I slept. We all slept. Next morning, New Year’s Eve, a Thursday, still nothing to write home about, though as the day progressed so did my contractions. The doula came, the toddler went to the neighbor’s house, all of us on standby. I took a nap. I awoke and hello there! Contractions. Steady, ready, and let’s get ourselves to the Birth Center because you just know when it’s time. The night was ridiculously gloomy, foggy, and quiet for a typically rowdy holiday. I could barely walk in the building, hunched and moaning, unable to talk. That’s when you know you’re not going to get sent back home, because contracting in a car is as close to hell as you’ll get in this lifetime and the last thing I wanted was to be sent back home. Sarah was there waiting. (Today I think about how being on call two … Read More

Spotlight: Sarah Dumas

This summer Clinical Midwifery Director Sarah Dumas celebrates 10 years at Women’s Birth & Wellness Center. A second-generation midwife, Sarah joined WBWC in 2007 after completing her Master’s Degree at the University of New Mexico’s nurse midwifery program. “I met Maureen at a midwifery convention and we hit it off,” said Sarah Dumas, CNM. “I loved the idea of a birth center outside of a hospital. The only time I had seen it was my cousin’s birth at birth center.” Sarah grew up in an army family living in Germany, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. She met her husband Jed through birth – she caught his aunt’s baby. They now have an 18-month-old son. “I’m not sure Sarah realizes how much strength and confidence, as well as compassion and softness she exudes, and I’m always so amazed and in awe of it,” said Mariah Velazquez, CNM at WBWC. “You can see in every part of her that she truly cares about her patients, her fellow midwives, the students she works with, as well as herself as a midwife, woman. She has been involved with so many aspects of my growing as a student midwife and as a midwife and I appreciate it immensely. I feel like I have learned so much from her and have so much more that I am yet to learn from her.” Sarah embodies the meaning of midwife, which means “with woman.” “Sarah caught my 10lb 5oz stubborn and posterior son. I never once felt like I was alone through my long, intense labor,” said Ariel Walker, WBWC mom. “I wish every woman could have a midwife like Sarah.” At WBWC we value family-centered birth and Sarah has helped many patients and their families feel supported through pregnancy and childbirth. “Sarah was reassuring and calm, but her experience and knowledge made us all feel protected and safe during this process,” said Laura Ratcliffe Walker, grandmother of a WBWC baby. “She is the epitome of a quiet, caring professional. Sarah’s expertise made our grandson’s entry safe and loving.” Sarah’s strong, comforting presence is a gift to all mothers at WBWC. “I’ll never forget Sarah’s reassuring touch and graceful, calm presence throughout my first labor,” said Shannon Ritchie, WBWC mom. “During those ‘oh my, I don’t know if I can do this’ moments all it took was looking at Sarah and I knew I could and was in capable hands.” … Read More