Serene Mind for Life

My last post was in 2015, and a lot has happened. In 2018, my partner and I moved from Long Island to Coastal Virginia. Peace and quiet, the water, gardening, and much more awaited me. I stopped being a delivering midwife when I discovered that being such in this area would entail long commutes and much longer shifts (many are 48 hours). I decided to take an office spot with Virginia Women’s Center and have been there for four years now. I opened up my Word Press page so as to publish a little PPT I did back in Southampton, New York when I became an IBCLC. I haven’t touched the PPT since 2018 but I am still happy with it. Hopefully I will someday get the opportunity to use it again in my job, but, and this is big, I am in school again and that is taking my focus for now. I am in the Psychiatric-Mental Health NP certificate program at George Washington University, hence the need to publish my PPT for an assignment I am doing. I am forming (on paper, at least) a Perinatal/Postpartum and Breastfeeding Support Group. I know, seems like a lot but the two are so intertwined that I just couldn’t help myself. So, that’s that. We shall see what comes of my current educational venture. I may stay at VWC and add mental health services to what I do for women (if VWC allows), or I may cross over the bridge to the provision of mental health services as my entire vocation.

The waiting and watching paid off! In May 2014, I took my first Provider position. Hudson River Health Care signed me on as a CNM in their Amityville office when it was converted from the Suffolk County Department of Health Clinic.

A little history…

While a midwifery student, I came across an article in a local newspaper that talked about a system of Federally Qualified Health Centers based in Peekskill that was planning on enveloping the Suffolk County health clinics into their network. Knowing it can be difficult landing that first midwife position without experience specifically in the field, I was hopeful I would be afforded the opportunity in this huge expansion of HRHCare. I would have liked to have been placed in the health center in my backyard of Southampton, but that spot was taken and I was placed in Amityville. Despite the commute, I was thrilled to begin, having waiting two years to find that elusive first job that did not involve a three hour commute into the city or even worse, a move to another area.

Well, I can now say that the work of school and the wait for a position was worth every effort and the faith it took to succeed.

Amityville is a fascinating little area on the South Shore of Long Island, about mid way to the island of Manhattan from Southampton where I live. The population we serve was such a surprise to me in its diversity and fascinating human surprises for this small town girl (well, a long time ago, that is). Despite having lived up and down the West Coast and then in three states along the East Coast, I never had the opportunity to be a small part of the lives of women and their families from many parts of the world, and I love it! More later…

It’s hard to believe my Clinical Instructor job is already wrapped up. My “kids” transformed from “But I can’t take her vitals…she is breastfeeding” to “I was able to assess the baby even while she was at the breast.” Very nice to see how accomplished they felt at the end of the eight weeks. I hope to do this again next year!

MS degree…check

ACNM Board exam passed…check

CNM license in hand…check

Enthusiasm, passion, evidence-based care, resourcefulness, and inquisitive and independent nature…check

Okay, now I’m really ready.  Searching for CNM positions on Long Island, the further east, the better.  I’d love to attend births, so will start there, gain experience, and see where it leads.  This is very exciting, and now it’s real.

Perhaps I’ll find a foreign spot for a week, a month…widen my perspective.  I’ve “done” the US, Atlanta, Oregon, Washington State, California, and New York in OB units large and small.    It would be nice to help women in other nations.

Onward!