With woman: catching babies never fails to deliver satisfaction

Airman, Dec, 2004 by Chuck Roberts

The word "midwife" can conjure up images of a matronly woman rendering bedside care to an expectant mother at a remote homestead. She is equipped with compassion, common sense and skills learned from a lifetime of hands-on experience.

The word "midwife" is believed to be derived from Old English "midwif" with "mid" meaning "with" and "wif," an old term for "woman."

Lt. Col. Shari Stone-Ulrich delivers babies amid state-of-the-art medical technology. But the nurse-midwife still adheres to the notion that childbirth is a natural event requiring minimal outside intervention.

So do about 750 mothers. That's how many women Colonel Stone-Ulrich "guestimates" she's assisted with the birth of their child--she lost track after 690. But that's not because her desire has diminished in being one of only 17 midwives in the Air Force. She once got into an argument with a pilot about who has the best job in the Air Force.

"It's really an honor to be part of such a life-changing moment," she said during a quick break in her cubbyhole office. She'd just met with Candace Campbell-Rhodenizer and her husband, Gene, a staff sergeant with the 732nd Air Mobility Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. It was time for an ultrasound peek at their 12week-old, whose gender would remain unknown until birth day.

"I encourage people to be surprised," she said moments earlier, during the ultrasound procedure. Suddenly an image of the child appeared on the monitor. "Very nice picture, huh?" the colonel said. Candace started crying.

Months later, Colonel Stone-Ulrich delivered the baby and laid it on Candace's stomach, as she always does. She made her usual offer to the husband to cut the umbilical cord. But the colonel's tie with the family wasn't severed with the birth. She continues to share their family journey to assist in areas such as breastfeeding and well-woman checkups.

"It's not my job--it's what I am," she said. But it almost wasn't.

After a childhood in Columbia, Mo., where she grew up surrounded by a network of grandparents and extended family, she departed for the University of Missouri-Columbia with an eye toward photojournalism. She had tentatively settled on a degree in rehabilitation counseling when a friend suggested nursing. The physical and psychological aspect of nursing sounded enticing. She applied and was accepted--her friend wasn't.

"I never regretted it," she said,

It was no surprise she gravitated toward obstetrics she said, with the memory of her mom's birth stories of herself and her two brothers. But joining the Air Force was something she never would have considered if not for the suggestion of her husband who "knew I could follow rules," she said with a laugh. And it was Maj. Mary Edsen, now retired, who suggested she become a nurse-midwife when they were stationed together at George Air Force, Calif.

"It was the smartest thing I ever did," she said of the master's of science degree in nurse-midwifery she earned in 1993 from Georgetown University.

Being a midwife is special, she said, because of the relationship that develops throughout the pregnancy. She knows having a baby can be scary. It was for her with her first child, Caitlin, now a 16-year-old, and second child, Kelsey, now a 15-year-old. She would later use a midwife, Lt. Col. Beth Ewing, with the birth of her son, Nathan, now 5.

"I like to think my empathy and experience makes it better for them," the 43-year-old mother of three said. The women who choose her services are more inclined to think of pregnancy as a normal developmental milestone. Colonel Stone-Ulrich said she is there to further that thinking.

"The goal of birth is to make the mother empowered," she said. After the delivery, the colonel gives credit to the morn. "You did it," she tells her, "I just stood there and caught the baby."

"I like to think they feel, 'Rah! I am woman!'" she said.

Colonel Stone-Ulrich "catches" the baby alone about 75 percent of the time. An obstetrician is always on call in case complications should require medical procedures such as forceps or a Caesarian section. If a high-risk pregnancy is expected, the colonel said she refers women to a doctor. But even then she can co-manage the pregnancy and still attend during labor and birth.

She wants to be there. And she'll continue being there for women even after her Air Force days have ended and she moves back to Missouri.

"I won't be doing anything else."

Career Field Facts

46GX--Nurse-midwife

Assigned: 17

Duties: Provides care to healthy pregnant women and newborns. A midwife is qualified to be the main caregiver throughout pregnancy and childbirth for healthy women, and to provide gynecological and family planning care throughout a woman's childbearing years.

Civilian application: The same duties, but a civilian midwife can be allowed to deliver children at the mother's home, though only about 5 percent do.

Lt. Col. Shari Stone-Ulrich

Certified nurse-midwife, 3rd Medical Operations Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska

Years in Air Force: 18