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Midwifery Services

Midwifery Services

Kaiser Permanente – North Valley (Point West, Downtown Commons, and Roseville)

What’s a midwife?

Certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) are board-certified, advanced practice registered nurses who specialize in women’s health care. Midwives deliver babies and provide holistic family-centered care to low-risk patients during pregnancy, during labor, and after birth. Midwifery care has been shown to increase the chance of having a vaginal birth and decrease the need for medical intervention.

The midwifery care experience

By your side at every step, midwives provide the following care throughout your pregnancy journey:

Prenatal care

  • Provide you with prenatal care in traditional office appointments or CenteringPregnancy® prenatal visits, depending on your preference
  • Partner with you to manage your clinical care and provide education and emotional support as your pregnancy progresses — collaborating with physicians as needed
  • Help you understand and prepare for labor and birth, learn labor coping skills, and understand pain relief options
  • Help you create a birth preferences plan to support your desired birth experience

Labor and delivery care

  • Provide expertise to help you have a vaginal birth, including position changes, hydrotherapy, relaxation techniques, and support to remain active during labor
  • Help you understand your choices for coping with labor, which include non-medication techniques and tools, pain relief medications, or an epidural — all options that midwives can prescribe
  • Discuss benefits, risks, and alternatives to determine the best plan of care for you and your baby as you move through labor
  • Work as a team with nurses, obstetric physicians, pediatricians, and anesthesia clinicians — all of whom are available if complications arise during labor or during or after birth
  • Deliver your baby
  • Assist in cesarean deliveries

Postpartum care

  • Support skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth
  • Provide resources and support for your physical recovery and emotional well-being
  • Provide contraception counseling
  • Provide postpartum care in the hospital and see you in the office for your postpartum follow-up visit