Gifford’s Revolutionary
Birthing Center
Is 30 Years Old

Pediatrician Lou DiNicola (right) looks in on newborn Victor Boule and his parents, Josh and Cassie at the Gifford Birthing Center recently. Josh and Cassie were also born at the Birthing Center, and both were tended to as infants and children by "Dr. D." The more things change ... (Herald / Bob Eddy)

In late December 1977, a Gifford Medical Center nurse gave birth to the first baby born in Gifford's new birthing room—the first hospital birthing room in New England.

This month, that then 8-pound, 9-ounce baby turns 30, and so will the Gifford Birthing Center.

Known throughout the state, the small, home-like Gifford Birthing Center got its start when two young physicians had a meeting of the minds.

In the mid-1970s, Gifford pediatrician Dr. Lou DiNicola, now Gifford’s medical director, recalls asking a local family practitioner, Thurmond Knight, what it would take for him to help laboring women in the hospital setting.

His answer was "a real birthing center."

Knight had helped women give birth to about 125 babies at home in the mid-1970s, backing up 14 lay midwives.

"That was what was happening at the time," Knight said in a recent interview with Gifford’s Robin Palmer.

The first home birth he attended was in Shoreham. "It was the most beautiful childbirth I had ever seen," Knight said. "Everything happened with such grace and beauty."

He had read an article in a midwife journal about a hospital in Georgia that had created a birthing room, the first of its kind in the country, to lure the black population into the hospital. At the time, said Knight, "granny midwives" were helping nearly all black women in this part of Georgia give birth at home. At $100 a birth, the Georgia hospital hoped to bring those women to the safety of a hospital setting while also providing the warmth and informality of home.

Knight brought the article to DiNicola and then to hospital administrator Phil Levesque and suggested Gifford do the same. Instead of bureaucratic resistance, his idea met full support, and the Gifford birthing room opened in 1977 on the third floor of the hospital.

"There was nothing like it that existed at the time," DiNicola recalled.

"People came from all over—New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts," Knight said. "It just took off."

And the larger medical community, which was at first concerned, took notice.

A New Standard

Prior to Gifford's birthing room in 1977, the options in Vermont and New England were pretty much what the movies show us.

Moms gave birth in a sterile delivery room, complete with table, stirrups, gowns, caps and masks. Once baby arrived, he or she was whisked away to be cleaned up and eventually settled in a nursery while mom moved to a postpartum recovery room.

Tina Clifford, now Randolph Elementary School's nurse, began work at Gifford in January 1978, just a month after the birthing room opened. She'd given birth herself in Burlington in early 1977 and had to sign a liability waiver in order to keep her baby in the hospital room with her.

"Birth was really medically managed," she says, noting mothers-to-be had two choices: give birth naturally at home or in a hospital where medications were encouraged and even walking around was discouraged.

Consequently, the Gifford birthing room alternative quickly became the preference of many women and families across the whole state.

The lone birthing room became four and soon replaced the delivery room altogether. Knight and DiNicola found themselves speaking at the University of Vermont and Dartmouth College medical schools. Ob/gyn physicians and midwives joined the hospital and then, in 1999, the Birthing Center of today was built in its own wing on the ground floor.

Since then, other hospitals have followed suit, at least in part, Gifford midwife Amie Kennedy says Gifford is still "the gold standard" in birthing procedures. After 30 years and about 9,000 births to its credit, Gifford continues to attract women from considerable distances.

Bonnie Hervieux-Woodbury, the current director of nursing in the birthing center, explained the appeal.

"First and foremost, we believe that pregnancy, labor and birth are natural events in a woman's life," she said. "With that basic premise in mind, we work together—obstetricians, pediatricians, nurse midwives, general practitioners and staff nurses—to ensure that women and their partners are informed, educated, supported and included in all decisions regarding their care."

Delivery Room Dads

But then again, Gifford has long been ahead of the curve when it comes to giving birth.

Even before the birth of the birthing center, Gifford was turning heads in the medical community by allowing dads in the labor room, and then in the delivery room, door beginning in the early 1960s. Family physician Ronald Gadway, now retired, sparked that mini-revolution. It was a decision that raised quite a few eyebrows, he recalled recently.

"In fact, UVM was a little nervous about that. It did a study on us," recalls Gadway, who lives in South Royalton.

Gadway, a Gifford doctor for 34 years, believes that early decision gave the foundation for the birthing center philosophy that remains today.

The Birthing Philosophy

Gifford's philosophy is that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes, so that little medical intervention is required for most pregnancies and such technologies should be introduced only when needed for more complex births. The goal is to provide a loving, supportive environment in which families can safely experience the miracle of birth.

Ingrid May of Ira gave birth to Gifford's "New Year's baby" this Jan. 1. Seven-pound, 3-ounce Sophia was May and husband Eric's sixth child—their second at Gifford.

"We like the midwife experience," said May recently, "and we love the hometown, small hospital type of experience. It felt like home."

"It's a great place to have a baby," Eric added.

May had other reasons to come to Gifford. It was the only hospital in her region with a full hospital-provided midwifery team offering round the clock care.

It was also the only hospital to allow May to have a traditional vaginal birth following a cesarean section.

Gifford also allows women to give birth in a spacious tub and to stay in the same room before, during and after giving birth, notes registered nurse Annette Robinson, who has worked nights in the Birthing Center on and off since 1980

It's just a special place to work, Robinson said. "We actually look at pregnancy as a natural, healthy experience and don't look at it as all the things that could go wrong. Yes, we're prepared for what could go wrong, but we don't look for it."

Sharing ‘The Magic’

Families frequently write to the hospital to express thanks for their birth experience.

"We drove an hour to come to Gifford, and in retrospect I would have driven eight," one woman wrote earlier this year. "We felt utterly blessed by the entire experience."

And Gifford staff members feel the same way, despite having been at it for 30 years.

"Pregnancy, labor, birth, and parenthood are life-altering experiences for all families. It is truly a gift to be entrusted to support and care for families as they negotiate these paths," reflected Hervieux-Woodbury, a Gifford nurse for 19 years.

"To attend to a laboring woman, to hear her infant's first cry, to see the love and awe in that mom's eyes as she welcomes her newborn to the world, to see a new dad cradle his infant for the first time—these are magical moments. So many times it is difficult to believe that this is what we do every day."

(This article was researched and written by Robin Palmer, communications specialist at Gifford Medical Center.)