Who's Who in Gig Harbor: Nikki Coraggio

Name: Nikki Coraggio, midwife/owner of Gig Harbor Midwifery

Date of birth: Aug. 23, 1979

Birthplace: Port Washington, Wis.

How long have you been a resident of Gig Harbor? For a little more than two years now.

When did you decide to become a midwife? About seven years ago. Before I got pregnant with my third child, I was considering all the options out there when it comes to how women are cared for in pregnancy and how birth goes. I was thinking there must be a better way and came around to midwifery through research. Since I was young, I have been interested in helping women through pregnancy and birth, but I hadn't realized that midwifery was even an option until then.

What do you provide the residents of Gig Harbor? Right now, Gig Harbor is lacking a licensed midwife, and I hope to fill that role. We are not that far from Tacoma, but it is still nice to have someone here that is local.

What is something a person might not know about midwifery? Most of the questions I get asked are about how professional we are in terms of what we gear we bring to a birth and how much training we have. I feel like it's important to reassure people, and I particularly see this in parents of clients. We do bring tools and medications. All of our training, which is fairly extensive for those of us who are licensed in the state of Washington, is to help keep women and their babies safe.

What type of training and licenses do you have? I went to the Seattle Midwifery School which is a three-year program after prerequsites. I graduated from the school in 2009. After taking the state licensing exams and going through the state's process, I am a licensed midwife in Washington state, and after an additional process, I have my CPM, which is a certified professional midwife, a national designation.

How does the patient's experience differ from a midwife and OB/GYN? Midwifes tend to have fewer clients. Most solo midwives, which is what I am, will take between two to four clients per month, and that means that we have a lot more time to devote to any one women and her family. We really pay attention to who she is and what her circumstances are through longer amounts of time during appointments. We are more reachable for taking calls. If you need to call somebody about a question or concern you have, I will be the one who answers the call. It's a very one-on-one model.

Is it safe to use a midwife? It's about as safe as it is in a hospital for women who are low-risk , and if they are cared for in the continuous model where we see you throughout pregnancy and know your risk level going into the birth.

When is it not safe? There are complications that we are trained to recognize. Things like a difficulty processing sugar, also known as gestational diabetes, during pregnancy, or high blood pressure. There are warning signs that are on a risk continuum. You just monitor everything to see when a hospital might be a better place for you. They have some of the tools we don't have, and you may be one of the people that need them.

What about last-minute problems that can arise? Most problems in labor we can see coming well in advance and can get to a hospital if we need to. Even if you live far away from a hospital, I have never been in a situation where I needed to get there faster than I was able to. We know how to assess if a situation like that is coming, and we really don't want to be in that situation any more than our clients do.

What would you say are your future goals? I would like to reach a sustainable place where I can practice my type of solo midwifery while seeing three to four clients a month and have enough time to devote to each of them. Also, to have enough clients to keep my business stable.

For more information on midwifery, visit the websites www.narm.org and www.washingtonmidwives.org.