How One Midwife Can Make a Difference in Our Community.

Below is a statement I read to Betsy Umhofer. Betsy is an aide to Congresswoman Lois Capps our local Representative. We were there as part of The Big Push for Midwives Campaign. As our closing statement I chose to highlight one of our local Certified Nurse Midwives as an example of how one midwife can truly make a difference.

Sandy Rodriguez was born at Mountain View Hospital in San Luis Obispo and grew up here. She received her midwifery degree from the University of Southern California at the Women’s Hospital in Los Angeles and became a Certified Nurse Midwife. She has practiced in our community for 26 years as a primary care midwife and delivered approximately 2,600 San Luis Obispo county babies. She has worked in all 3 of our hospitals: French Hospital, Sierra Vista Hospital and General Hospital. She has worked directly with 4 medical practices: Dr. Johnson, Dr. Segal, Dr. Krumhout and Mission Medical Clinic. She has worked with almost every doctor in our community: Dr. Richards, Dr. Storrer, Dr. Freeman, Dr. Monroy, Dr. Lickness, Dr. Clutter, Dr. Haupt, Dr. Yinn, Dr. Goodrich, Dr. Spalding, Dr. Safarik, and Dr. Hirsh; all of whom respect her and her abilities as a birth professional. She has worked collaboratively with many other CNMs over the years, including: Rhia Liama, Vickie Charbano, Penny Hall, Linda Seeley, Nora Lewis, Linda Richards, JoAnne Tarkington and more. Currently she is in practice with and imparting her years of valuable experience to Helen Cominos and Lisa Winnick. Over the years she has also had working relationships with our local Licensed Midwives: Sue O’Connor, Brenda Ramler, and Edana Hall; agreeing to allow women to see her a few times prenatally and then being willing to receive them as clients in the hospital in the event a transfer of care was needed. She has touched the lives of thousands of women in our county providing quality prenatal care. Currently she is busy supporting women in their choices and catching babies, some of whom are babies of women who were babies she delivered. Sandy’s cesarean section rate is about 8%. This represents a savings between $12.3 million and $24.7 million. But the human cost is better represented by the fact that she saved between 300 and 600 women from undergoing major abdominal surgery during one of life’s most important rites of passage.

Yesterday I stated that I would not be using full names of birthing women or telling their birth stories. Their privacy is important to me. I will be sharing things I have witnessed without connecting it to a particular woman. Further I will be using full names of care providers when they deserve a "thumbs up".

I would personally like to thank Sandy Rodriguez for always being open to helping my clients and to working with me as part of a birth team.

Tomorrow I'll explain more about The Big Push for Midwives.