As the end of 2023 approaches, it’s once again time to remember the blessings and challenges of another year, and give you all a little update on the work of Gentle Delivery Midwifery. I’m always grateful to look back and remember the families I was privileged to work with and the babies I was able to meet. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your lives in such a special way!

I know many of you find it interesting to hear some of the stats from the year, so here’s a few for those of you who enjoy such things. I’m anticipating at least one more baby for 2023, but as of now the smallest baby was 6# 8oz, and the largest was 10#12oz. Quite a variation of normal, isn’t it?!? Around 60% of these babies were born in water, and ranged from arriving around a week and a half early to 13 days late. Most of the families I worked with this year were new to Gentle Delivery, though I served three families for the 3^rd time and one family for the 4^th, which is extra special! I was also happy to help a number of families with questions, consults, and involvement during pregnancy and birth both in person and virtually…assisting families in networking with other providers, supporting previous client families that have relocated and providing consult help to families with specific questions or concerns has been an additional focus of my midwifery work this year.

I had a variety of assistants at births depending on location, availability and circumstances. Between Christine, Lanna, Emily and Denae, I was thankful for great addition to the birth teams, and all the help these ladies give. For those delivering in early months of the New Year, I’m excited to introduce you to Natasha Yoder, a midwifery student/assistant who plans to come help me for a few weeks as Christine is expecting a baby of her own in January.

 Besides staying busy helping with babies arriving in other families, we were grateful to welcome another baby of our own. Shekinah Glory joined our family on March 24, after a short but intense labor. She was also born in the water, and her sisters were present along with our midwife and birth team. Nursing was quite the journey once again, and we ended up making the drive to Albany, NY to have Dr. Kotlow revise her tongue & lip ties with laser. After a few intense weeks of monitoring weight gain, pumping/feeding, and all the stress this adds to the initial adjustments, we were SO thankful to have the procedure work effectively. She has since gained weight quickly, absolutely loves nursing, and refuses to take either a pacifier or bottle!  Thankfully she has plenty of older siblings who are always happy to have a turn helping with baby sister, and now that she is 8 months old it feels like we are finally figuring out a rhythm to family life once again. I think we learn more with each new baby, and this time we purposefully booked a long break from births in order to have the much-needed time to recover, adjust and enjoy the newborn stage without extra pressure or demands.

Continuing education classes were another focus for this year: attending the GOLD midwifery conference virtually was helpful, and I was especially happy to once again take the Breech Without Borders intensive class. This includes online lectures as well as over 8 hours of in-person instruction and training, and is so valuable in enabling families to have more options when it comes to safe breech birth. Though I’m still happy if babies want to come head first instead of making me put these skills into practice too often.

I can’t finish without once again expressing my thanks to my own husband and children who truly make my midwifery involvement a family ministry. Whether it’s changing plans at a moment’s notice, babysitting, holding schedules loosely, taking care of supper prep or all the other factors, it has been a blessing to have their support and encouragement. It can sometimes feel like a constant juggling act to balance midwifery with the family, church and ministry responsibilities that our family is involved in!  My oldest daughter has been an amazing help this fall, coming along to babysit Shekinah during births so baby could nurse as needed while I could continue to focus on providing care.

As we head into 2024, it looks like there may be some changes on the horizon. While none of our plans have been finalized, it’s possible that our family may relocate to the Philipsburg area sometime this next summer. This has the potential of changing some of my availability, though at this point I would still consider State College to be within my care radius. Keep tabs on the website or Facebook page, as I’ll make sure to post updates if this happens! I’m hoping to see more of you this next year, too, as my goal is to resume seasonal playdates beginning this winter, so stay tuned for an announcement. 

Blessings to each of you in the New Year!   ~Kelsey Martin @ Gentle Delivery Midwifery