This midwife’s patient-centered care complements the personalized attention and great outcomes we’re known for

When certified nurse midwife Maria Greulich recently delivered three babies on a single shift that started at 5 a.m. and ended more than 12 hours later, it was just another glorious day on the job at El Camino Hospital Los Gatos.

Is she passionate about her work? “Absolutely--it just amazes me that I have a part in these miracles,” says Greulich, who in 1987 became the first midwife on staff at the Los Gatos facility, where she’d previously served as the Obstetrics Department’s head nurse. Since then, she’s helped to bring more than 300 babies into the world. 

“People love her,” says Roxanne Jezyk, RN-C, BSN, manager of Maternal Child Health Services. “She’s very dedicated and tries to give patients the type of birth experience they want.”

As a certified nurse midwife (CNM), Greulich is a clinician who has graduated from an advanced educational program accredited by the American College of Nurse-Midwives and has passed a national certification exam that meets strict requirements set by state and national health agencies. The scope of her practice includes gynecological services as well as preconception counseling, and the care of normal, healthy women during pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period. She and other CNMs on staff at El Camino Hospital Los Gatos closely collaborate with obstetricians, gynecologists and other medical specialists for immediate consultation or referral should a medical complication occur during pregnancy or childbirth.

According to Jezyk, the appeal of the midwifery option is that it’s holistic, emphasizing birth as a natural process, and is nurturing with less intervention. “We offer our patients time--not only during office visits but when they’re in labor,” Greulich says. “We come to the hospital when they do and stay with them--coaching and helping them cope with labor.

“Everybody has ideas about what their ideal labor and delivery is,” Greulich adds. “Our job is to make sure it’s safe and then try to accommodate them. Our No. 1 goal is a healthy mom and a healthy baby.”

For more information, come to Tea With the Midwives, held on the third Sunday of the month (alternates between El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and Los Gatos); call 408-866-4018. To learn more about nurse midwives, please go to www.elcaminohospital.org/midwives.