The Midwives: Jan Olsen
I have been a Certified Nurse-Midwife for over twenty-five 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.