The Spectrum Health Medical Group OB-GYN team on the lakeshore is now offering midwifery services at Zeeland Community Hospital, which before now, were not available.
Katie Steele is a certified nurse midwife at Spectrum Health.
“It’s available in GR, but there’s no services available anywhere on the lakeshore, so people were having to drive to Grand Rapids, so it’s exciting to bring this to the lakeshore.”
Steele says she’s been a registered nurse for 20 years, with 15 years in the Family Birth Center. She says it was the connections and relationships in that setting that made her continue her training to become a mid-wife.
“Midwifery offers a more holistic natural approach to labor and delivery and prenatal care, it’s more individualized.”
As part of the Spectrum Health System, Zeeland Community Hospital is now part of the only “hospital-based” midwifery program in West Michigan, which Steele says is likely to grow.
“Spectrum has really grabbed on the importance of midwives and how they improve outcomes. Really exciting they want to grow that in regional hospitals and now in Zeeland. And the interest in midwifery services increases.”
Steele says midwives do more than just deliver babies. They also focus on a full range of health needs such as birth control and family planning, breastfeeding support as well as menopause management. You can learn more or schedule an appointment at spectrumhealth.org/midwifery
