Spotlight on: Jennifer Middaugh, CNM, Certified Nurse Midwife, Jones Memorial Hospital

“My first exposure to the health care system was pregnancy and delivery,” said Jennifer Middaugh, CNM, a certified nurse midwife at Jones Memorial Hospital. “And I loved my labor nurse at Jones, Sandra Moore, RN. She made a huge impression on me so I knew when I went into health care that I would head towards obstetrics and gynecology.”

Middaugh married right out of high school and had three children before she started her career at Jones as a PCT almost 20 years ago while she was still in nursing school. “I always asked to watch babies being delivered,” she said. “And I got close to the OB team. So when I graduated I was grateful that they held a position for me in Labor and Delivery.”

As a young mother she worked full time and finished her bachelor’s degree at Jacksonville University. But she had additional goals. “I wanted to go to midwifery school so I could have my own patients, be able to follow them, and take care of them,” said Middaugh. So she got her master’s in midwifery from SUNY Stony Brook and worked in Coudersport for several years.

Then Jones sought her out again. Middaugh came back in 2014 and now has a full scope midwifery practice including obstetrics, antepartum and gynecology working with Heather Lanphere, MD.

“Dr. Lanphere and I practice together,” said Middaugh. “But we each have our own patients that we follow through pregnancy and delivery. This is the kind of practice I wanted from the very beginning,” she said. “I am so grateful to be seeing patients that I took care of as a delivery room nurse in 2003 now come to me for their gynecology care.”

Middaugh is committed to rural health care. “I love the small-town atmosphere where I know my patients and can chat with them in the grocery store,” said Middaugh, whose two daughters are now in nursing school. “We become midwives because our relationship with our patients is a top priority for us. It’s wonderful to develop that kind of relationship when you know about the patient and her family. We are with them at some of the best times of their lives and, sometimes, the most traumatic. And we are honored to share part of their lives.”