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Midwifery Services

Midwifery Services

The Midwife Birth Experience

The Certified Nurse-Midwives of San Leandro are honored to be present with you on your journey through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum. The word “midwife” originates from the Old English mid, meaning “with” and wif, meaning “woman.” Together, expressing the role of the support person and caregiver present during childbirth. As a Kaiser member, you are welcome to see a midwife at any point during your prenatal care. On Labor and Delivery, the midwives attend nearly 70% of all low-risk vaginal deliveries and assist with most cesarean sections.  We work closely with women and their families to provide patient-centered, individualized care, doing our best to honor your desired birth experience and safely welcome your baby into the world.

Who We Are

Certified nurse-midwives are advanced practice nurses. This means we are registered nurses who have an additional two years or more of graduate level training in midwifery. Most of us have Masters Degrees or Doctorates.  Midwives in the US receive national certification from the American Midwifery Certification Board and practice within the guidelines of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. At Kaiser Permanente San Leandro, the midwives provide prenatal and postpartum care through the Centering model of group care. On labor and delivery, the midwives provide care for low and moderate-risk laboring patients, working closely with our physician and nursing colleagues who are on site 24 hours a day, and available for consultation and/or assistance.

We SUPPORT:

  • Your emotional and physical well-being.
  • Movement and nutrition in labor.
  • Your desire for an unmedicated and low-interventive birth, or your desire for the use of pain-relieving agents in labor such as the TENS unit, sterile water papules, nitrous oxide, fentanyl, and/or epidural analgesia.
  • A support person of your choice, including partners, family members, doulas, and/or friends.

We PERSONALIZE:

  • Your experience, plans, and intentions for coping with labor.
  • Monitoring of your baby to help ensure a safe and healthy delivery.
  • Time of the clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord.

We HONOR:

  • Bonding with your baby through skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding.
  • The physiologic process of birth.