Midwifery Services

Midwifery Services

Many women have very specific ideas about their Birth Preferences Plan and for some, that means choosing a midwife for pre-natal care and delivery. MarinHealth Medical Network proudly offers full-scope midwifery care. Our highly trained Certified Nurse Midwives provide care to women before, during, and after birth. Additionally, our midwives provide well-woman and gynecological care for women of all ages.

Midwives trust women and trust birth. Midwifery care is individualized, emphatic, and evidenced-based. By empowering women with knowledge, midwives encourage shared decision-making, a model of care in which women are active participants, not mere recipients, of care. Our individualized oversight instills in women a sense of confidence and calm during birth while ensuring the safety of mom and baby.

To support the normal physiological process of birth, midwives encourage eating, drinking, freedom of movement during labor, birthing in whatever position a mother chooses, and skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby. Our midwives recognize that each labor is unique, has its own rhythm, and unfolds in its own time. Allowing for these differences help us achieve high rates of vaginal deliveries and lowers our cesarean section rate.

Research has demonstrated that midwifery care improves outcomes for both mother and newborns. Women cared for by midwives report great satisfaction and a more positive attitude toward their childbirth experience. Midwifery care:

  • Reduces the incidence of cesarean birth

  • Increases the success rate of vaginal birth after a past cesarean delivery (known as a VBAC)

  • Decreases the rate of episiotomies

  • Decreases the rate of vaginal lacerations

  • Decreases the use of narcotics and other pain medications during labor

  • Uses fewer interventions during labor

  • Increases rates of breastfeeding

  • Improves outcomes for patients facing racial disparities

Certified Nurse Midwives

Certified Nurse Midwives are advanced-practice registered nurses who have completed a minimum of a Master's of Science in Nursing. Licensure requires continued medical education on an annual basis, and licenses are renewed every two years. Certified Nurse Midwives hold DEA licenses and are able to prescribe a full range of substances, medications, and treatments, including pain control medications in labor.

Collaborative Care

MarinHealth Medical Network offers a comprehensive collaborative care model that ensures women get the best care no matter what their needs. On labor and delivery, your care team includes a midwife, obstetrician, pediatrician and anesthesiologist 24 hours a day. As the experts in normal birth, our midwives attend the vast majority of vaginal deliveries. When indicated, midwives work in consultation with a physician OB/GYN. For cesarean deliveries, midwives regularly assist physicians in the operating room allowing for continuity of care. After birth, our policy is to keep mom and babies together at all times, if needed, babies are cared for by an in-house pediatrician in our Level 2 NICU. Lactation Consultants are available to all families in the post partum period to assist moms and babies with all their breastfeeding needs.

Appointments & Patient Resources

To schedule an appointment with a midwife for prenatal, gynecologic and contraceptive care, please contact our MarinHealth OB/GYN Office: 1-415-461-7800.

You can find out more about the philosophy of midwifery care and patient and community advocacy by visiting the below websites: