Happy New Year from the Fertility and Midwifery Care Center and the Holy Family Birth Center. It is our hope that you and your family are well and have been able to subdue the noise of the world and enjoy one another’s company as this new year begins. While 2020 was a year of firsts, and hopefully lasts, it provided some great moments along the way. In our work we are so very fortunate to be invited into the defining moments of our patient’s lives on a regular basis. Whether it’s couples winning their hard-fought battle against infertility or recurrent pregnancy loss, the victorious cheers of a successful VBAC mom, the look of elation and empowerment on a woman’s face when she completes her first natural birth, or the healing tears when a family experiences an authentic, family-centered cesarean birth, you repeatedly invite us to share in the most pivotal moments of your lives and we couldn’t feel more honored to have your trust.
We’ve had many new staff members join the FMCC family during the year, including some of the greatest labor and delivery nurses in the community who work as part-time birth assistants at Holy Family Birth Center. We feel so fortunate that so many great people support our mission, and our values, and choose to become part of our team. On a sad note, we also said goodbye to two great physicians in 2020, Drs. Angela Martin and Blaise Milburn. Both contributed significantly to our success and our community during the years they were here, and we miss them immensely.
Leigh Bauer, DO
Obstetrician-Gynecologist
This year saw the arrival of our newest physician, Dr. Leigh Bauer and her beautiful family. Dr. Bauer has been a tremendous addition to our team, and we feel so very fortunate that she chose to make Fort Wayne home. She brought with her, among many other skills, unique experience and expertise using bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, including implantable hormone pellets to treat a variety of conditions. Many of our patients have already benefited from her knowledge in this important area of work.
Rachel Maio, CNM
Certified Nurse Midwife
Earlier in the year Rachel Maio joined us as a nurse-midwife. Rachel’s background as NICU nurse and her training as a nutritionist has brought a unique perspective to our team. Rachel and her family moved to Fort Wayne from Columbus, Ohio and they recently purchased a small farm near Columbia City, where they plan to “grow” with us well into the future.
Nicky Schwanz, CNM
Certified Nurse Midwife
Nicky Schwanz joined the practice near the end of the year as our newest nurse-midwife. She started working with us just a few weeks after giving birth to her third child at the Holy Family Birth Center. Nicky has been working the last few years as a nurse-midwife in Elkhart, Indiana and as a labor and delivery/postpartum nurse at Dupont and Parkview Hospitals prior to becoming a nurse-midwife.
Ryanne Kees, CNM
Certified Nurse Midwife
Ryanne Kees completed her masters in nurse-midwifery and will be joining our team this Spring. Ryanne has worked for us in some capacity since we opened our doors in 2014, first as a receptionist, later as a medical assistant, then later as an RN. We are all so proud of what Ryanne has accomplished and we look forward to watching her continue to grow as a nurse-midwife in the practice.
Nicole Bobay, PT
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist
And Nicole Bobay, probably the region’s best known physical therapist specializing in pelvic floor conditions, joined our team last summer. Nicole has helped countless women suffering from pelvic pain, urinary incontinence, and a variety of other pelvic floor conditions. We’ve had the pleasure of referring patients to Nicole for many years and we couldn’t be more pleased to now have her a part of our FMCC team.
Goodbye & Godspeed!
Angela Martin, MD
Blaise Milburn, MD
2020, a year of Success!
The year brought the first full year of the Holy Family Birth Center, which opened in May of 2019. We’ve now attended over 170 beautifully natural births and the stories from those families are more remarkable than we could have imagined. We received full accreditation of the birth center from the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC), despite the pandemic. This represented countless hours of work by our nurse-midwives and demonstrates our unwavering commitment to safety and quality at the birth center. We were honored to receive in-network status from Anthem, Cigna, and Sagamore commercial health insurance plans. This means the out-of-pocket cost to a family at the birth center is identical to that of the hospital for those with these insurance plans. This makes birth center birth a possibility for many families who may otherwise be unable to afford it. We hope to add more insurance plans to this list in the year ahead.
A Sweet Congrats from one of our families
“Marianne,
I’m sure this is email is reaching you too late; nonetheless, here it is! Once again, CONGRATULATIONS on the accreditation!! We hope all is well with the Stroud Family and the Holy Family Family! We are missing seeing all of you, but as you can see from the crazy video, it’s probably best we wait awhile for Finch Baby 4! We also decided that baby 4 should be babies 4 and 5. Any tips on conceiving twins? ha! Much Much Love,Bri and The Crew!”
If it has been a time of change, then we’ve certainly experienced our share of it over the past year. At the same time, we remain steadfastly unchanged in our approach to care; in our commitment to care for women and their families in a way that is scientifically and morally sound, while respecting a woman’s ability and right to manage her health, her pregnancy care, and her birth experience. We remain unabashedly and authentically pro-life. We most certainly still believe that it’s an honor to serve as partners with our patients in their healthcare journeys, and we will always do everything possible to treat the sanctity of those relationships with the respect it deserves. Thank you for your continued support of the Fertility and Midwifery Care Center and the Holy Family Birth Center. It is our prayer that you and your family remain healthy and experience a safe, and prosperous New Year. On behalf of our staff, our providers, and our families,
Happy New Year!