Teri Stone-Godena's eyes lit up and she sat forward in her seat as she started to talk about being a nurse-midwife. "I never wanted to do anything else with my life!" she exclaimed with a missionary's zeal.

In her practice at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) Women's Center and her work as the Interim Director of Yale University School of Nursing's Midwifery Specialty, Teri Stone-Godena, MSN, CNM, shares her love for this field every day. In this vibrant center for women, YSN midwifery students learn from Stone-Godena and her faculty colleagues while providing vital care for patients from vulnerable populations.

"There is never a boring day at the Women's Center," Stone-Godena added. "Women's lives are incredibly complex, and we deal with issues way beyond their physical needs."

Joining Stone-Godena and her fellow YSN faculty at the Women's Center are the 35 midwifery students currently enrolled in the two-year midwifery program at YSN. For the vast majority of these students, working at the Women's Center is their first exposure to this specialty.

"Our faculty work alongside the YSN students at the clinic and provide a great model for how to care for women. This is the highest caliber of evidence-based midwifery practice," Stone-Godena added.

YSN midwifery students find the clinic to be a very special training ground. Christina Martinez '09 has been mentored at the clinic by Nurse-Midwifery Associate Professor Heather Reynolds. Martinez explains how important it is to see real-life examples of a nurse-midwife relating with a patient, something she witnessed Reynolds accomplish on many occasions.

"Heather has a way of connecting with patients when they have a lot of stuff going on in their life. She develops trust and understanding and can reach out to help them," Martinez explained. "I have learned that it is important to be with a female patient in a way that brings out the deeper issues that affect not only her pregnancy but also her health and overall well-being."

A definition of a nurse-midwife is one who delivers infants, provides prenatal and postpartum care, newborn care, and some routine care for women. But according to Stone-Godena, the practice of midwifery goes well beyond that basic definition.

"Every woman has within herself the ability to make healthy choices for herself and her baby," she explained. "It is our job as midwives to help moms be aware of these choices and how to implement them."

The patients in the Women's Center represent a wide variety of vulnerable populations. Between 40 and 50 percent are Spanish speakers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants. In the past several years, there has been a large influx of patients from Africa, Turkey, India, and the Middle East, as well as African Americans and whites. Patients often come in at puberty—as young as 13 years old. "With the patients we see at the clinic, much of the risk with their pregnancies is in their social situations," she said.

Stone-Godena goes on to describe a typical social difficulty affecting one of her patients.

"I have a 30-year-old patient who is an illegal immigrant and came to see us because she was suffering from breast pain," Stone-Godena commented. "This woman is in a horrible living situation, is afraid of her husband, and feels that she has no recourse due to her illegal status. We have worked extensively with this woman and put her in touch with a social worker to help her with counseling, resources, and a safety plan.

"This is a perfect example of the type of problems our patients face that require much more than routine health care," Stone-Godena added.

In addition, nurses in the Women's Center team spend a tremendous amount of time advocating for many young pregnant women who are being treated at the clinic.

"We have many pregnant moms who are 15 or 16 years old and are living in very difficult family situations," she said. "Our job is not only to care for them physically, but to show care and concern and make a social connection."

It is this care and concern for patients given over her 32 years as a nurse-midwife that inspires Stone-Godena as a clinician and instructor of YSN students.

"I simply love the idea of working with women to make healthy decisions, to be present before, during, and after she gives birth," she concluded. "My entire life I have wanted nothing other than to be around women as they go through this amazing process."

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