Lone Star Nurse Midwives (San Antonio, Texas)

Meet the Certified Nurse-Midwives of Lone Star:


AMY	CHRISTY	JAN	LAUREN
Each CNM at Lone Star Ob/Gyn has both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees as well as certification as a nurse-midwife by the American College of Nurse Midwives. We are each licensed by the State of Texas as an Advanced Practice Nurse (Certified Nurse-Midwives), annually meet all the requirements for hospital privileges as required by St. Luke's Medical Center, and attend annual continuing education conferences. Our hospital privileges include patient admission for antepartum, intrapartum and post-partum care for our patients as well as assisting our back-up physicians as surgical first assistants for cesarean deliveries. We are all certified in CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and are also Neonatal Resuscitation Providers.
From Amy: Caring for women and children has been my love and passion since I began my nursing career. I received my Bachelors of Science degree in nursing from the University of Kansas in 1997. I worked in a women’s health/labor and delivery unit as my first job where it was clear to me that I wanted to continue my education specifically relating to women and children. So I went on to receive my Masters in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Kansas in 2000 and completed a Post Masters degree as a Certified Nurse Midwife from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. I consider caring for women and children throughout their life span a privilege. It truly is a blessing for me to be able to educate and support women so that they can actively participate in their care (a true hallmark of midwifery) and then to be a part of this momentous and life changing event: birth.
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From Jan: I have been a Certified Nurse-Midwife for twenty years. I completed my Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Maryland in 1978 while a first lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. My first assignment was Brooke Army Medical Center here in San Antonio. I was assigned to work in Labor and Delivery and that was the beginning of a love affair with birthing babies. I knew immediately that I could do a much better job of helping women give birth than I saw the doctors doing, so I applied for graduate school to get a Masters in Nurse-Midwifery. I was awarded that degree in 1985 and spent the next five years delivering babies in the Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I retired in 1990 and came home to San Antonio where I joined the staff of Nurse-Midwives at the UT Health Science Center. Our focus was our Adolescent Clinic, which provided services to teen parenting programs of all the school districts in San Antonio. It was during this time that I developed a deep compassion and passion for helping these young women to realize their greatest strengths and potential through the experience of pregnancy and giving birth. That midwifery practice at the University closed in 1996 and another Nurse-Midwife, Patricia Skiles and I started the first Nurse-Midwifery practice with the help of Drs. Patrick Williamson, Peter Kuhl and James Hadnott, in the private sector in San Antonio ... Lone Star Nurse-Midwives. Like my colleagues, I believe that our practice provides the best of all worlds for women and their families. As midwives, we believe and respect that pregnancy and birth are natural and healthy processes, and we act as guides, support systems, cheerleaders, teachers and whatever is needed throughout your time with us. ... while also offering medical consultation or referral and the safety of a hospital environment.
From Lauren: I joined the midwife staff at Lone Star OBGYN when I relocated to San Antonio in June 2010 from Austin. I earned a Masters in Nursing in 2007 from Case Western Reserve University, and today I am a Certified Nurse-Midwife and a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where I majored in Women’s Studies and History and found the subject of women and their health to be fascinating. In a college course that I took as part of my degree -- Childbirth in America -- I first heard of midwifery being utilized in modern times. I thought the subject of midwifery was incredible and I really wanted to explore the field further. That’s when I decided to follow up and receive a nursing degree and become a labor and delivery nurse … my father is a physician, my mother was a nurse; I couldn’t help but be naturally interested in the medical field. With over 250 babies on her birth and delivery resume to date, I have seen a lot of different circumstances that qualify me to work with expecting mothers. Working in labor and delivery as a nurse really helped me to become a midwife. I’ve worked with many kinds of women and families, and been at the births of multiples, breech babies, preemies, and healthy full term babies. I know how to recognize when a labor is progressing normally and no intervention is needed, and how to recognize when things aren’t going smoothly. Part of being a good midwife is understanding when to be ‘hands off’ and just let things happen naturally, and when to jump in with the appropriate intervention. I spend my spare time with my partner and our son, Henry, born in 2009. I also enjoy camping, projects around the house, and sewing and craft projects. I am hands-on in all that I do, whether at home, work or play, enjoying the process of making things happen along the way. I love working with families as they grow- I love the personal strength that childbirth gives women, and I love being a part of that transformation. I share the following quotation from my ‘Hand-Blessing Ceremony’ (a tradition in midwifery where the hands of new midwives are “blessed” by the more experienced midwives of the community): “May a divine power enter these hands and guide you as you help mothers and babies for the rest of your life, and may love and courage stay with you always. You have been called to take this journey, and you leave tonight with a blessing on your hands - remember that to be a midwife is an honor, to share in the lives of women is a privilege.”