Certified Nurse Midwives are providers of primary health care of women and newborns. Care by Nurse Midwives incorporates all of the essential factors of primary care and case management that include evaluation, assessment, treatment and referral as required. The model of health care practiced by CNMs is focused on the ambulatory care of women and newborns and emphasizes health promotion, education and disease prevention and sees the woman as central to the process of providing such care.

Care by CNMs includes preconception counseling, care during pregnancy and childbirth, provision of gynecological and contraceptive services and care of the peri- and post-menopausal woman. With health education as a major focus, the goals are to prevent problems and to assist women in developing and maintaining healthy habits.

CNMs are often the initial contact for providing health care to women, and they provide such care on a continuous and comprehensive basis by establishing a plan of management with the woman for her ongoing health care. Such care by the CNM is inclusive and integrated with the woman's cultural, socioeconomic and psychological factors that may influence her health status.

ACNM position statement. (1997)

Clients are experts on what ails them, and if you let them, they will tell you.

Believe Midwifery Services is eager to serve women between pregnancies or women who have not had, or do not intend, a pregnancy. We schedule a full hour for these visits because we want the time to fully understand and evaluate your specific situation. We view this exam as time to discuss and exchange new health information about each woman's health concerns.

Clients often comment that their exam at Believe Midwifery Services was the most extensive and gentle physical exam they have ever experienced. As well, many have shared that through screening and counseling, Penny has better discovered and managed disease states than their previous medical providers.

Our practice has a particular interest in working with clients who otherwise feel particularly vulnerable within the typical medical model. We appreciate the pelvic exam as one that can be frightening and are committed to spending the necessary time to educate clients through each step, allowing women to gain trust in their provider and gain greater understanding of their own body.

An annual exam or well-woman exam would include:

• review of health history
• review of life-style habits
• review and discussion of any specific concerns
• head-to-toe physical exam
• laboratory testing
• prescription needs
• additional specialty testing as indicated
• referrals to specialists as indicated  
• education and counseling as indicated

Please visit our financial information page for specific fees associated with our office visits. Payment is expected at the time of service, including fees for labs obtained by our office. If insured, we can offer you a receipt for your services to share with your insurance company.

As well, please print our health history form and HIPAA consent, and bring these to your first appointment with the midwives.

Penny has at heart, an appreciation for complementary and alternative medicine, while also having training and experience in modern medicine approches. All options are discussed with clients for addressing various health issues. Penny specifically utilizes essential oils and botanical medicines into her care management.

 "Refusal to apply modern methods of assessment to a potential form of therapy on the grounds that it is not a conventional medical treatment replaces scientific objectivity with medical trade unionism," (Joyce & Welldon).

"The medical industry may be viewed as a conduit for social control in the sense that many of the gains women have made with respect to reproductive rights depend on modern medicine (e.g. contraception, abortion, prenatal and birthing care). At no point in her reproductive years is a western woman likely to escape the imposition of medical control. Greene (1984) in particular, claims that women over 40 can be assured of a clinical diagnosis of ‘peri-menopause’ if they present almost any complaint to a doctor, from somatic, to psychological, to sexual. Once defined, researched, diagnosed and treated as a deficiency disease, menopause becomes the conceptual and practical property of medical specialists whose authority over its treatment was, until recently, rarely questioned. The relatively new phenomenon of peri-menopause has gained popularity and has been defined as a “period of time that is the transition between the reproductive years and menopause.” This recent focus on what can only be described as a “pre-transitional” phase of women’s reproductive life is quickly becoming the arena of further medicalization" (Loppie & Keddy, 2002). 

Archer Everson

February 2009

born en caul, sunny-side up, reaching out and grasping his midwife's hands before birth