Megan Navarro
BUDA — For four years, a local midwifery service has been offering full in-home care — prenatal visits, births and postpartum needs — while also moving to offer clinic visits through rental space in Austin on certain days. Now, knowing that the need is continuing to grow, Central Texas Midwifery is opening up a clinic in Buda to serve families for prenatal and postpartum visits in one space.
The practice is run by two midwives, Michelle Gold, who lives in the Kyle and San Marcos area, and Kate Van Der Riet, who lives in South Austin. Both of them noticed that there was a lack of midwifery care in that corridor, leading them to open Central Texas Midwifery in 2021.
‘There's lots of midwives in Austin and there's some midwives in San Marcos, but there's not really right in between the two locations. I grew up in Wimberley, my parents and my grandparents all grew up in Buda and so, I’m kind of from the area. So, I'm very familiar with all the little back roads in Buda and the cute little Main Street,” Gold said. “When we were thinking about where we wanted to provide the most care to people and have our clientele be located, Buda and Kyle just makes sense for us to help service that need that's there because people continue and will continue to choose home birth and so, now, we can have a place for them to go, so they don't have to drive as far. They don't have to drive all the way to Austin for their prenatal and postpartum care.”
To become licensed in the state of Texas, midwives complete extensive education — most of whom go through a formal midwifery school — and a clinical apprenticeship under the supervision of experienced midwives, during which they attend a required number of births and clinical visits for hands-on experience, Gold explained. Once those requirements are met, the midwives submit their documentation to the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), the organization that oversees the national board exam. After NARM approves the documentation and the exam is passed, they can then apply for a Texas midwifery license.
Gold, who became a licensed midwife in 2019, graduated from the Association of Texas Midwives Midwifery Training Program and apprenticed with a busy birth center, learning from both Licensed Midwives and Certified Nurse Midwives. Van Der Riet, licensed in 2021, graduated from the Midwifery College of Utah and apprenticed with a long-time home birth midwife in California before finishing her clinical training at the same busy birth center as Gold in Austin.
“I had my babies at a local birth center with midwives and it was a wonderful experience that shaped my path into this work. At that time, I didn’t know much about home birth. Over time, I came to realize that home birth offers the same midwifery care and safety standards, but with even more continuity and connection,” Gold shared. “Being able to provide care from the first prenatal visit through the postpartum period, all in the comfort of someone’s home, allows for deeper trust and a sense of safety that comes from truly knowing your midwife.”
One of the main reasons that mothers choose midwifery care and home births, as opposed to the traditional hospital setting, is bodily autonomy, Gold said, because they want the freedom to be able to choose what’s best for them and their family.
“As midwives, we're able to really dig into what may be recommended [and] what may be considered standard. We get into the risks, the benefits and the alternatives for that. We're able to really fully explore that with people, whereas in bigger settings like [obstetrician-gynecologist] or hospital settings, it's really harder to do that,” she said. “It's not that the people there aren't trying to do that. The system is set up to take care of a wide population ranging from high risk to low risk, and so, they have to have certain policies in place to make sure that no one falls through the cracks.”
The midwife continued, stating that she and her staff are not anti-hospitals, as they do believe that interventions — when used appropriately — can be lifesaving. She said they are thankful for the hospital systems they have in place that they can go to and get the help, should it be needed.
There’s also a small population, Gold said, that chooses this kind of care because they need a more nurturing environment, such as those who may have had some kind of medical trauma.
Mothers may feel scared or hesitant when they are about to go through this major change in their lives, but Gold explained that whatever those feelings may be, Central Texas Midwifery is there to help.
“It's pretty normal for them to feel some kind of anxiety about this change, but whether it's the uncertainty of birth and how that is going to play out or whether it is becoming parents, we really just walk alongside them, give them support, talk them through any fears that they are facing. We are trying to normalize what can be normalized and then, we also encourage other support systems, too, and we're giving them resources for that. So, that would be, for example, if they really think that they could benefit from a doula … a labor coach. They're providing physical and emotional support, but they're not doing any monitoring of mom and baby. They're not doing any baby-catching, that kind of thing. We encourage all of our first time moms to take childbirth education classes, as well, because we feel like that is a really good foundation for facing uncertainty of labor and births,” said Gold.
That care transitions into after the baby is born, as well. Typically, in the hospital setting, a mother is seen until they are discharged after birth and then go see their OB potentially at two weeks, but six weeks is standard, she continued.
However, in midwifery care, postpartum visits are just as important as the other points of care to ensure that the transition to the growth of the family is going well.
“We're helping with lactation. We're screening mom to make sure that she's not having any blood pressure issues or bleeding issues. So, we see somebody usually anywhere from three to five times in the postpartum period. Our particular practice, Central Texas Midwifery, will see people five times in the postpartum period. So, we see them two times in that first week. We generally come back and check on them within 24 to 36 hours after birth, and then, again in that first week and then, we see them at two weeks, four weeks and six weeks,” Gold said. “The other thing that is within our scope to do is that we can provide well baby care for up to six weeks.”
Central Texas Midwifery’s clinic will begin seeing clients at the end of this month, but a grand opening celebration will be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 at 610 Main Street in Buda. The provider currently serves North, Central and South Austin, Bee Caves, Lakeway, Manchaca, Buda, Goforth, Kyle, San Marcos, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Liberty Hill and Georgetown.
To learn more about the practice, or to set up a consultation, visit www.centraltexasmidwifery.com.
