08/08/2026
A New Chapter in Midwifery Care đ€
I have some big news to share about whatâs next for me professionally. I am beginning my transition into hospital-based midwifery with Midland Womenâs Clinic, working alongside Dr. Locke and an incredible team of physicians, midwives, nurses, and support staff.
First, and most importantly, for those of you currently in my care at Odessa Birth & Wellness: nothing about your planned care or birth location is changing. I am continuing to care for my current birth center families as planned. One added benefit of this transition is that, in some circumstances, if you do need to transfer to the hospital, I may be able to remain involved as your provider. Whether that is possible depends on the circumstances surrounding the transfer, so there is quite a bit of nuance that doesnât translate well into a social media post. If you have questions about what this could mean for you specifically, please ask me at your next appointment.
Owning and operating a birth center and serving as a solo midwife has been one of the most special and challenging experiences of my career. I am incredibly glad I did it. It has taught me more than I could ever put into a post, and I am proud of the care I have been able to provide here.
But the reality is that being a solo midwife means being on call essentially all the time while also running an entire healthcare business. I am not just the midwife. I have also had to manage staffing, billing, insurance claims, credentialing, compliance, supplies, collections, scheduling, and all of the administrative work required to keep a small medical practice running.
Insurance reimbursement has been a particularly difficult part of sustaining independent birth center care. The amount an insurance company determines a service is worth does not always reflect the actual cost of providing that service, especially when you factor in the staffing and administrative work required just to bill and collect reimbursement in the first place. I believe strongly in access to community birth, but believing in something does not make the current reimbursement structure sustainable for every independent practice.
There is something incredibly exciting about joining an established team that already knows how to handle all of those pieces. I will have experienced staff handling the administrative side of healthcare so that I can spend more of my energy doing what I actually became a midwife to do: take care of women and families.
And while the location may be changing, my philosophy of care is not.
I will still support physiologic labor. I will still encourage movement, position changes, patience, informed decision-making, and allowing normal birth to be normal. My patients will still have autonomy. They will still receive respectful, well-rounded informed consent, including the right to ask questions, accept recommendations, or decline them.
The difference is that I will now have even more tools available when they are needed. I can support someone who wants an unmedicated physiologic birth, while also being able to offer access to the highest level of pain management available if that is what she wants. Midwifery does not have to mean choosing between physiologic birth and modern medicine. There is room for both.
I am also incredibly fortunate to be working with Dr. Locke, who is a wealth of knowledge and exactly the kind of physician collaboration I value. When a pregnancy begins to become higher risk, having a physician I trust available for consultation and co-management can allow a patient to receive a higher level of medical oversight while still keeping me involved in her care when appropriate. And when someone truly needs care beyond the midwifery scope, I want to be able to confidently transition her care to a physician I know and trust.
To me, that is what good collaborative maternity care should look like: not arbitrary lines between âmidwife patientsâ and âdoctor patients,â but the right level of care for the person sitting in front of us, with the ability to move between those levels as her pregnancy requires.
There is also a personal side to this decision. I love being a midwife, but I also have a family and a life outside of midwifery. Being the only person responsible for being available 24/7 eventually takes a toll. Joining a group where I can share call with other midwives and work alongside physicians I trust means I can continue doing the work I love while having a healthier and more sustainable work-life balance.
I donât see this transition as leaving the kind of midwife I have been. I see it as giving that midwife more resources, more backup, and more ways to take care of people.
I am incredibly grateful for every family who has trusted me with their care and every baby I have had the privilege of welcoming at Odessa Birth & Wellness. This chapter has shaped me tremendously, and I am excited to take everything it has taught me into the next one.
There will be more information to come as this transition progresses. For now, current patients should continue with their appointments and birth plans exactly as we have discussed, and please bring me any questions you have at your visits.
And for those who have wished they could have midwifery care with me but wanted or needed a hospital birth, I am very excited that I now have another way to serve you, too.
