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Midwifery service wins grant to expand services

The midwifery service at Upstate University Hospital at Community General has been selected as one of three in the region to receive a $15,000 grant from the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York. The grants are intended to expand midwifery services for low-income women.

Although typically thought of as caregivers in woman’s pregnancy, midwives are experts in women’s health and provide care through all stages of a woman’s life. “Midwives are considered primary care and provide a full scope of women’s health services,” explains Heather Shannon, M.S., C.N.M., N.P., M.P.H., director of Community Midwifery. “We work with women at every age and stage, providing gynecological care from puberty and menstruation, to family planning and obstetrics, and menopause and beyond.”

The provider-based midwifery program is set to fully launch by early fall 2012, with all babies being delivered at the Jim and DeDe Walsh Family Birth Center in Upstate University Hospital at Community General. The grant will support several areas of the program including pregnancy care, patient education and strategic planning to help meet the needs of the targeted population.

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