The first midwives at Vanderbilt attended births at a hospital in a rural county west of Nashville, then moved to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1997. Over the past twenty-four years we have established a stellar safety record.
Vaginal birth rate 80.4%
Cesarean section rate 19.6%
Primary c-section rate 15%
Episiotomy rate 2.2%
3rd or 4th degree lacerations 2.9%
Preterm birth rate 4.9%
We are staffed exclusively by graduate level trained advanced practice registered nurses from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing.
Our CNMs are graduates of top-flight, accredited Master’s Degree programs. We maintain certification through the American Midwifery Certification Board as well as Tennessee state licensure in both midwifery and nursing.
Every provider in our group is a faculty member at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing is one of the best in the nation, ranked as the #8 graduate school of nursing according to U.S. News & World Report. In fact, the VUSN Nurse-Midwifery graduate program is ranked #1 in the country! Some of us teach in the classroom and some of us provide hands-on clinical training.
Our practice includes nurse-midwife faculty in leadership at the School of Nursing, and nurse-midwife researchers who generate cutting edge research in pregnancy care. We don’t just practice evidence-based care - our providers are generating the evidence that guides safe maternity care world-wide.
Midwives believe that women’s lifecycle events (menstruation, conception, pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding) are normal processes, not medical diagnoses. We care for women through those events with education, support, and counseling.
The Vanderbilt Nurse-Midwives monitor women through the childbearing year, provide women with individualized education and counseling during prenatal care, offer support and assistance during labor and delivery, minimize unnecessary technological interventions, and identify women who develop complications in pregnancy or labor.
For many of our clients, birth can occur with very little intervention. We are patient with the birth process. When we recommend an intervention, we start by explaining all the reasons we believe intervention is warranted, then empower women to make decisions about their own care.
We care for low-risk women, women with pregnancy complications, and women with medical complications.
We are fortunate to practice midwifery care within a world-class academic medical center, with the ability to consult with, co-manage with, or refer to other members of the care team - obstetricians, maternal fetal medicine physicians, neonatologists, geneticists, and more.
Like all midwives, we offer expert care to healthy women experiencing low-risk pregnancies. And thanks to close relationships with our collaborating physicians, we are able to safely care for some women with medical problems prior to pregnancy, or women who develop complications in pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum.
Our practice has a collaborative relationship with the Vanderbilt Medical School faculty obstetricians. These physicians are available to us night and day. When a true emergency occurs during pregnancy or birth, midwives are trained and ready to respond. When the emergency requires surgery, it takes just minutes to gather the team and move to the operating room.
She offers prenatal breastfeeding visits and group breastfeeding classes to prepare women for nursing. She is also available for postpartum consultations, to solve breastfeeding problems. Our IBCLC can help improve baby's latch, boost milk supply, and prepare a nursing mother for the return to work. She works in tandem with the midwives and nurse practitioners to diagnose and treat mastitis and thrush.
