What Do Midwives Do? One Of Rockford’s Best Answers Our Questions

What's Up, Doc? is a weekly health segment on WROK sponsored by MercyHealth. Each week they highlight a different doctor/healthcare professional to come on our show and talk to us about their specialty. It has turned into one of our favorite segments. All of our doctors have exhibited a "human" side that people don't always get to see with their physicians. We encourage you to check out some of our past episodes here. We've done about 30 of these segments highlighting everything from Lyme disease to hernia repair to finding a health care plan and everything else in between. We've learned a lot and hope you can too.

This week's guest was Elizabeth Burke. She is a licensed midwife for Mercyhealth at Javon Bae hospital. I, personally, have no children of my own. I had heard of a midwife before, but like Riley says in the interview, I was one of many who thought that a midwife was something from a bygone era that wasn't around anymore.

It turns out that I was wrong about that but Elizabeth said that I am definitely not alone in that thought and many women that go through the pregnancy process aren't aware of their services either. This was one of the main points she wanted to share during her visit, that midwifery (pronounced mid-wiff-ery) is something that most women can benefit from, and they don't even have to be pregnant.

That was the biggest takeaway for me, was the fact that midwifes can be a very nice liaison between doctors and patients for all OB/GYN issues.

If a the services of a midwife seem beneficial to you, Elizabeth says to not be afraid to bring it up with you doctor. You might be surprised at how beneficial they can be.

We thank Elizabeth for her time and look forward to next week's guest on What's Up, Doc?

A new episode of What's Up, Doc? can be heard every Thursday morning at 8:35 on 1440 WROK.