Boulder Community Health Launches Hospital-Based Midwife Clinic

Last Friday's print edition of the Daily Camera had a very positive story about our new Foothills Community Midwives clinic on the front page of the Local section. The same article was also published in the Longmont Times-Call.

Boulder Community Health is proud to be offering patient-centered midwife care to our community --
and to host the only hospital-based midwife births in Boulder.

Read the article at the Daily Camera online, or read the full text of the article below.

Boulder Community Health launches hospital-based midwife clinic

A clinic at Boulder Community Health is offering expectant Boulder County mothers the guarantee of midwife-attended birth in a hospital setting.

Foothills Community Midwives, a new four-practitioner clinic led by senior midwife Paige Swales, offers a full complement of holistic women's health services, including prenatal care and postpartum care. The clinic, which is currently accepting new patients, officially launched last week at the system's Foothills Medical Building.

Midwife services, which are increasingly popular with expectant mothers, are more "patient-driven, personalized and have a big educational component," Swales said.

"We really spend the time to get to know them," she said. "We want to build relationships and we don't want patients to feel like they're just a number."

But, Swales said, the clinic and its patients also benefit from the affiliation with the health system.

"We have the ability to build these relationships and offer true midwifery care, but within the safety and comfort of a hospital," she said.

"Because we're providing care in the hospital, we have a collaborative relationship with a group of physicians who provide obstetric medical care to our patients," Swales said. "So if the pregnancy is little higher risk or if during labor a patient needs a C-section, we have physicians close by who we can consult."

The clinic strives to provide low-intervention deliveries, but the presence of physicians "gives us a bit of a safety net," she said. "We have anesthesia available, we have an operating room available. Patients, of course, don't have to have any intervention, but it is there is if they need it."

Earlier this year, Madison Brower — with the help of Swales — gave birth to her third child at the hospital. This was her first delivery under the care of a midwife.

Midwife care "makes you feel incredibly supported," she said. Swales' "presence was so calming and reassuring — we were on the same page in terms getting me through it naturally if at all possible."

To schedule an appointment with Foothills Community Midwives, call 303-415-4045.

To learn more about Midwifery Care at BCH, visit: bch.org/midwife