The residency program is also one of the first to have a midwife, Trish Payne, C.N.M., M.P.H., as part of the department. She also has full privileges at UNC hospitals. They learn a lot of low-intervention techniques and alternatives. If you can get a baby out by changing the mother's position, then it's good for the mother and better for the baby. Their box of tricks is more full when they graduate.
Residents participate in an integrated rotation.
They take care of women who are due to deliver during the month when the resident will be doing deliveries. That way they work with the mother all through the pregnancy. And the residents see it as part of what family physicians do regularly, not just in the middle of the night. King said she's had several residents start the program saying they didn't want to do obstetrics, then change their minds. And the patients love having midwives and family physicians to help them through their pregnancy.