Midwifery Care

Medical, Oral Health, and Behavioral Health Services

Midwifery Services

Affinia Healthcare is proud to offer Midwifery care as part of our award-winning reproductive health team which also includes OB-GYNs, Family Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Doulas, and WIC (Women, Infants, & Children) services.

Our Certified Nurse-Midwives are now delivering babies at SSM DePaul Hospital’s Family Birthplace. We have Certified Nurse-Midwives who are also Family Nurse Practitioners, so you may continue to see them for yourself and/or your entire family’s primary care needs.

Midwives are trained healthcare professionals who take care of people from “menarche through menopause” (or from their first period through the rest of their life) and specialize in caring for people during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Midwives also take care of healthy newborns through 28 days of life.

There are many different types of midwives, but certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) are midwives who train as registered nurses before becoming midwives; the Affinia Healthcare Midwifery Team consists of CNMs. Our midwives are “experts in the normal” and practice according to the Midwifery Model of Care, which approaches pregnancy and birth as normal/physiologic processes. Midwives can attend births at home, birth centers, and in hospitals. Although many people who choose to have an unmedicated or “natural” birth may choose a midwife, our midwives can also care for patients who choose to have pain medication or an epidural during labor and birth.

For more information on our Midwifery Services, click the link: Midwifery IG Content

Examples of midwifery services:

Can attend births in hospital, home, or birth center settings (at Affinia Healthcare, we attend births in the hospital)
Sexual and reproductive health care and education (such as STI prevention, testing, and treatment)
Family planning, including birth control services (pills, patch, IUDs, implants, etc.) and preconception care
Primary care for individuals from adolescence throughout the lifespan ("menarche through menopause")
Healthy newborn care during the first 28 days of life
Management of labor & birth in the hospital
Lactation support

Benefits of Midwifery

Holistic, individualized care
Family-centered care
Low C-section rates
Low rates of pregnancy and birth complications
Low rates of inductions
Increased satisfaction with labor, birth, and overall quality of care
High rates of breastfeeding/chestfeeding

Midwifery Model of Care

Monitoring the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the pregnant/birthing person throughout the childbearing
Providing pregnant/birthing people with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and birth, and postpartum support
Providing evidence-based care and minimizing unnecessary interventions during labor and birth when there are no complications
Working with other specialists such as OBGYNs and/or Maternal-Fetal Medicine when necessary

High-quality, family-centered care

Our certified nurse-midwives are trained healthcare professionals who provide sexual health and gynecological/reproductive health services and specialize in caring for people during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. There is some overlap between the scopes of CNMs and OBGYNs, but midwives are not surgeons. Midwives provide care for all patients, but consult/collaborate with OBGYN and/or MFM colleagues for high-risk conditions and refer when surgery is necessary.

Midwives also provide some primary care services for adolescents, adults and care for healthy newborns during the first 28 days of life. You and your baby can see a midwife together in the immediate postpartum period!

Many of our midwives are also Family Nurse Practitioners, so you may continue to see them for yourself and/or your entire family’s primary care needs, even after your baby is born.