Special
Features / June-July 2008
On Call for Miracles
 "Kat" Ambler
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Ah, the wonder and delight of a newborn baby. “The birth of a baby is always a miracle. No matter what time it is or how long the delivery has taken, laying the baby on its mother’s chest and watching the family in awe of their newborn is always a joy to me and makes the time spent well worth any effort on my part.” said Kathleen “Kat” Ambler, a fourteen year veteran nurse-midwife in the Charleston area.
“I remember my first birth experience, one of my friends asked me to be with her at the birth of her child. She didn’t want to go to the hospital and deliver in a cold, sterile environment, she’d done that with her first delivery and it left her wanting a more personalized experience. She believed that having a baby was a natural event that should happen in warm, comfortable surroundings with her family and friends close by.
“When she asked me to be at her delivery I was honored and waited with eager anticipation of the birth day. When the time came, my friend had her baby in the comfort of a cozy upstairs bedroom at a doctor’s office – the first birth center in Maine. It was quite different from what most women were experiencing. There was a doctor and a nurse-midwife, my friend, her husband, her 2-year-old and me.
“When I saw how the nurse-midwife helped my friend and how she made the birthing process so calm and enjoyable, I asked the midwife what she had done to become a nurse-midwife. The very next day, I applied for nursing school, the first step,” she explained.
Kat, as everyone calls her, is originally from Pennsylvania, but spent most of her life in Maine. Kat was able to complete her formal training from the Frontier Nursing Services in Kentucky while living in Maine.
When she was offered a wonderful position as a nurse midwife in West Virginia that included being able to attend deliveries at a birth center as well as at a hospital, she jumped at the chance. Now, after being in West Virginia for the last four years, she is very content and glad to be helping deliver miracles to families every day.
Kat laughed when she was asked what a typical day in the life of a nurse midwife was like. “There is no typical day,” she said. “My days ‘on call’ last for 24 hours – from 8 a.m. on day one to 8 a.m. on day two, then I am on second call that second day in case we have a delivery at two sites at the same time. While on call I am also answering patient telephone calls and triaging any patients who are having problems and need to be seen at the hospital instead of the office.”
When not on call, she sees pregnant patients for their prenatal care in the office, and also sees non-pregnant women for their gynecological needs such as annual exams, pap smears, breast exams, contraceptive counseling and problem visits.
“I love providing support and education to young women having their first exam as well as women having peri or post menopausal problems” she continued.
Last year, Kat, along with the four other nurse midwives and two physicians in her practice, delivered 360 babies. Out of the 360 births, appropriately 80 percent were natural deliveries, with only 20 percent requiring C-Sections or surgical intervention.
“Yes, I work odd and very long hours, but I love what I do,” she said. I have been very lucky to have a supportive family to help me. I knew that when I was gone from my children that they were in the best of care. My husband, mother, and grandmother always provided the ‘live in’ support for me and my children. My family knew that what I was doing was very important to me and to the families I was helping. I was always afraid that my children would feel deprived if I had to miss a birthday party, a school outing or a graduation, but they never looked at it that way. They were always proud of their mother and what she was doing to help other people,” she added.
“My occupation imposes many hardships related to scheduling time with my husband and children, as covering call is a 24-hour, day-and-night responsibility, even on holidays and weekends. My husband has come to accept seeing me run out the door on my way to help bring the next miracle into this world. But, for me, I wouldn’t have it any other way, unless I could get more sleep, of course.”
From ‘A Woman’s View’, we give our thanks for women like Kat who works horrendous hours and provide warmth and comfort to women when they need it the most.
Kathleen “Kat” Ambler is a nurse midwife with FamilyCare Health Center in Charleston and Teays Valley, WV, and is affiliated with Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
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