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Porter to Establish Nurse-Midwifery Practice in Vergennes

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Tuesday April 17, 2007

    Porter Hospital will soon add a new service and introduce a new provider of health care services for area women.  As of June 1, Certified Nurse-Midwife Martha Redpath will begin seeing patients in Vergennes at the former Vergennes Family Health office on Armory Lane, and she will have delivery privileges in the new Porter Hospital Birthing Center.  The name of the practice will be “Tapestry Midwifery”.

    According to the American College of Nurse-Midwifery, Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM's) are “licensed registered nurses who have completed additional/specialized training in the management of pregnancy and delivery, as well as postpartum services. CNM's must graduate from a nationally accredited education program, pass a rigorous national certification exam, and be licensed to practice. Certified nurse-midwives provide their clients with a safe mechanism for consultation, collaboration, and referral if needed to an OB/GYN physician specialist.”

    Pat Jannene, Vice President for Patient Care Services at Porter Hospital, believes that the introduction of a nurse-midwifery service at Porter Hospital will provide area women with an additional option of provider when deciding whom to see for their prenatal care and will position Porter Hospital to attract additional clients for our new Birthing Center based on this consumer choice.  “Every woman and every couple view their birth experience as a very special and important event--and most couples want to play a very active role in selecting the type of provider and type of environment they prefer-our goal is to provide here at Porter as many of the best options possible for both” she added.

    “Additionally, our new Birthing Center, which was designed with an LDRP model of care in mind, is ideally suited for the nature of nurse-midwifery practice, while maintaining appropriate and convenient access to both specialized medical care and facilities if unanticipated intervention is required” she said.

    According to PMC President, James L. Daily, the OB/GYN specialists who have privileges at Porter Hospital are supportive of the introduction of this service and of the specific provider who has been identified.  “We are very excited to be introducing this new service and I would anticipate that once this practice is established and begins to grow, we may need to recruit additional CNM providers in the future.”

    Redpath has 20 years of experience, in various capacities, supporting and caring for women-including providing the full scope of nurse-midwifery services such as the management of pregnancy, birth, postpartum care, well-women exams and contraceptive care.  She worked in the Gifford Hospital birthing center from 1987 to 2006, and is a resident of Vergennes.  She earned her nurse-midwifery certificate from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in Hyden, Kentucky, (the first and oldest school of nurse-midwifery in the United States) and holds a Masters Degree and Bachelor's of Science Degree of Nursing from Case Western Reserve University and Duke University.

    "I am thrilled to be providing midwifery services, well woman exams and other health care services to the women in our community. The warm welcome
from so  many people at Porter is setting the stage for a lovely practice to grow", she said.

   Additional information and appointments will be available beginning in mid-May.

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