Midwives Team With Holyoke Hospital

HOLYOKE—One of the region’s most prominent midwifery groups has announced its affiliation with Holyoke Hospital.
Midwifery Care of Holyoke, a practice of Western Mass. Physicians Asociates, has opened offices at 267 High St. in Holyoke, adjacent to the Holyoke Health Center.

Midwifery Care of Holyoke had previously been affiliated with Baystate Health Systems, under the name Midwifery Care Associates.

The group traces its origin back to 1985, when it began offering its services to women and children in the area through Providence Hospital. In addition, two of the group’s six midwives, Mary Price and Ginny Miller, spent several years practicing in Hampshire County while affiliated with the Valley Medical Group, which was formerly Kaiser Permanante.

Midwives guide women and their families through the process of pregnancy and birth. Nurse-midwives are registered nurses with additional training in obstetrics and gynecology who are nationally certified and licensed by the Commonwealth to provide women’s health care services. In addition to providing prenatal care and attending births, they also perform annual exams and pap smears, screen for sexually transmitted diseases, and provide a wide variety of birth control methods.

Midwifery Care of Holyoke Director Nina Kleinberg said she is excited about the group’s new affiliation with Holyoke Hospital, as well as its reconnection with the Holyoke Health Center, with whom the midwives worked during the 1990s.

“We will have a close relationship with the practitioners who care for many of our clients’ other health care needs,” she said.