Special Delivery, Close to Home

Eight years ago, Silvia Esparza, MSN, APRN, (Nursing ’15) received a desperate call from someone searching for a midwife. Esparza had just moved from Lubbock, Texas, to Amarillo, Texas, (about two hours away) and had no openings that month to take on another birth.

In Lubbock, she worked as a nurse midwife and had just started her home birth practice in Amarillo. Although she could not take the client herself, she offered her home for the birth and served as a liaison to find an Amarillo-area midwife who could care for the client.

The situation made her realize she has the potential to serve the people around her. “I told my husband, ‘This needs to be an option,’” Esparza says.

In 2017, Esparza created a facility with a home-like environment close to Amarillo’s hospital district, giving women another option for birth. Today, she serves about 60 clients a year, providing care for pregnant women during their prenatal period to after their child’s birth.

Esparza says she noticed an increased interest in midwifery services since the COVID-19 pandemic. She says her clients often tell her they enjoy the education, guidance and birthing options, and the ability to play a wider role in decision-making.

Esparza graduated in one of the first TTUHSC School of Nursing, master’s in nurse midwifery cohort. Graduates are taught to make sure women and families know how to make informed decisions when it comes to their health care options, says Erin Sing, PhD, DNP, program director.

“This requires a great deal of trust between the woman, her family and the midwife,” Sing adds.

If a birth is high risk, both Esparza and Sing are the first to suggest that a hospital birth is probably in a client’s best interest.

“If the midwife’s the best person to provide that care, then we’re going to provide that care,” Sing says. “But as soon as we realize somebody else would have more expertise in whatever a client is facing, then we bring that person in.”

The midwife also has the potential to impact rural communities and fill in service gaps, Sing adds. That is one reason why TTUHSC’s program uses distance learning. It increases the opportunities to train a rural student who can provide care in their home community.

“I’m very excited that the university is starting to graduate a lot more midwives,” Esparza says. “Because that’s one of my goals, in this area, is to have more midwives.”