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Nurse-Midwife Concept
New In Cleveland County
Expectant mothers and fathers should
share in the birth experience of their child,
} Ousley, a certified nurse-
midwife, who is this area’s first and may be
the first woman in this profession in the Pied-
“mont Carolinas.
Dr. John L. Washington, obstetrician-
gynecologist, announced this new maternity
concept for the Cleveland County area this
‘week - a team care of maternity and
gynecological patients in private practice by
a MD-OBGYN and a registered nurse who
has taken additional training to become a
certified nurse midwife.
Mrs. Ousley came to work at Washington's
West King Street office last week and on
Wednesday her first patient, Nanette Cash,
delivered a healthy, five pound, two ounce
baby girl, Christina, at Kings Mountain
Hospital. Nanette and Ronnie Cash are
already the proud parents of two boys.
Although Christina Cash was delivered by
standard procedures and the father was not
present in the delivery room, Mrs. Ousley
highly recommends that the father be en- -
couraged to be present with his wife in the
delivery room. Progressive ideas in materni-
ty care, which include the father being pre-
sent for pre-natal classes and in the delivery
room, will be encouraged by Dr. Washington
and his nurse-midwife. The Washington
Clinic will offer a.birthing room, a rooming-in
program and support prepared childbirth
and early family interaction at no additional
cost to the patient and her husband.
“We are very interested in developing’
family centered maternity care, with the
family’s participation in a relaxed non-
clinical atmosphere consistent with high
quality; safe obstetrics’’, said Dr.
Washington. ‘We are very excited about this
new service for our area and we understand
that the concept of team care may not appeal
to all patients, although acceptance in other
areas has been almost 100 percent, so par-
ticipation in this plan will be voluntary’’, said
Dr. Washington. Dr. Washington emphasizes
to his patients that team care is not a cut rate
economy plan but will be a program of ex-
uality care with more personal at-
tention than has been possible in the past.
The maternity care fee will be the same
whether the patient chooses MD-midwife
team care or only MD care.
Emily’s husband, Dr. Ben Roy Ousley, a
Cleveland County veterinarian, was with her
when she delivered their three children, Ben-
jamin, age 11; Carrie, age 7; and three year
old Sarah Ousley. The Ousleys have been
Cleveland County residents for nearly five
years. For several years Emily commuted
between Lawndale and Knoxville, Tenn.
where she helped build Tennessee’s first out-
of-hospital maternity center which now has
two mid-wives and three family practice
physicians on the staff.
The employment of well trained nurse mid-
wives as part of a private practice maternity-
gyn care team is new in this area, but has
been well tested and is very successful in
other areas of the country. The concept of a
high quality team approach to maternity
care involving trained specialist obstetri-
cians and nurse-midwives has developed
because most obstetrical care is normal and
uncomplicated and easily managed by well-
trained non-MD personnel; with the supervi-
sion and backup of a physician. Patients with
high risk pregnancies or complications are
best managed by the obstetrician and mid-
wife working as a team. Because the obstetri-
‘cian devotes less time in caring for the nor-
mal patient, more time and energy can be
given the patient with a problem or complica-
tion, Dr. Washington explained.
Emily has been well trained. Having
graduated from the University of Tennessee
College of Nursing at Memphis, she then
worked in the maternity unit at St. Joseph’s
Hospital inMemphis, taught obsetrics in the
Baptist Memorial Hospital School of Nursing
and assisted in teaching prenatal classes
there; taught obstetrics and gynecology and
the East Tennessee Baptist Hospital School
of Nursing.
She took her nurse-midwifery training at
the University of Mississippi Medical Center
"and received her Certificate of Nurse-
Midwifery in 1976. She then worked as a
nurse-midwife at Grady Memorial Hospital,
Atlanta, Ga. She worked with Planned Paren-
thood Association of the Southern Mountains,
was in private practice in Knoxville, Ten-
nessee for three years, worked at the
Cleveland County Health Department, and
most recently started the first out of hospital
birth center in the state of Tennessee. She has
been well trained in all aspects of prenatal
care -including dietary instruction, routine
prenatal care, recognition of problems and
complications, and prepared childbirth with
family centered care and husband prepara- =
tion.
Emily has been specifically trained in the
conduct of normal labor and delivery in-
cluding fetal monitoring, evaluating progress
of labor, recognition of high risk factors or
complications, local and pudendal
anesthesia, ‘routine episiotomy, and repair
and immediate care of the newborn infant.
She will manage postpartum care including °
breast feeding and family planning.
Engagements
She will assist the doctor in providing
prenatal. Also she will see and follow and
deliver a group of uncomplicated patients
that choose care by her. She will consult with
Dr. Washington or refer to him any patient
that becomes other than normal. Washington
or a covering physician, will be on back up
call at all times.
Will nurse-midwife Emily be available for
“home deliveries” as midwives were known
to be many years ago?
“No, it just isn’t feasible because of
distance and transportation’, says Emily,
who says that Kings Mountain Hospital has
all the facilities and that her patients will be
given their choice, from completely natural
childbirth to standard procedures, with or
without the husband’s presence in the
delivery room. ‘Whatever is acceptable to
the parents it’s their choice of how they want
their child to be delivered,” says Mrs.
QOusley. . ]
Excited about this new concept in materni-
ty care for the Kings Mountain area, Mrs.
Ousley said she welcomes the challenge and
feels this unique service will benefit women
of this community. Women often feel more
free to discuss personal problems - par-
ticularly these related to sex-with a nurse-
midwife than with an obstetrician. Mrs.
Ousley will see patients for routine office
WOMAN TO WOMAN -
Nurse-midwife
Emily Ousley, standing, talks with Sharron
Clinton in the examination room of the
Washington clinic on W. King Street.
Women often feel more free to discuss per-
sonal problems with a nurse-midwife than
with an obstetrician. ;
care, annual exams, pap smears, vaginitis,
contraceptives, etc. as well as provide per-
sonal maternity care and give family health
education and counseling about such things
as birth control, the changes and possible
discomforts of pregnancy and various
aspects of infant care. :
Mountain area.
TEAM APPROACH TO MATERNITY CARE - Dr. John L. Washington, above, with
nurse-midwife Emily Ousley who have initiated a new maternity concept for the Kings
SHERYL ANN RAILEY
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED—The engagement of Miss
Sheryl Ann (Sherry) Railey to Melvin Gene Mcmahan is an-
nounced by her mother, Linda Lawson Railey of Kings Moun-
tain. The bridegroom-elect is the son of Virginia and Michael
Ramey of Shelby. The wedding will take place May 18th at 3
p.m. in Grace United Methodist Church. Miss Railey is a
graduate of Kings Mountain Senior High School and is
employed by Motel Royal of Kings Mountain. She is the
granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Lawson of Kings Moun-
tain and the great-granddaughter of Mrs. Ada Lawson and
the late Dillard Lawson of Kings Mountain and Mrs. Macie
Smart of Clover, S.C. and the late Lester Moses. Mr.
Mcmahan attended Shelby High School and is employed by
Concrete Supplies of Shelby and is grandson of Herbert Ihde
and the late Ihde of Seward, Nebraska.
REGINA SMITH :
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED—Mr. and Mrs. M.W. Smith
of Corinth, Mississippi, announce the engagement of their
daughter, Regina, to Donald Willard Johnson, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Willard Johnson of Kings Mountain. The bride-elect is a
1981 graduate of Alcorn Central High School and is employed
by Wal-Mart of Selmer, Tennessee. The bridegroom-to-be isa
1977 graduate of Kings Mountain Senior High School and is
employed by the Kings Mountain Police Department. An
April 19th wedding is planned. ;
RHONDA ROSIERE
BOYD WHITSON
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED - Mrs. Stella Wheeler of
Round Rock, Texas and Richard Rosiere of Van Buren, Ark.,
announce the engagement of their daughter, Rhonda, to Boyd
Whitson, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Frank Whitson of
Bakersville, N.C. An August wedding is planned. The couple
plan 9 make their home in Green Meadows Estates, Kings
ountain.